Feb
10
by Phil
A few days ago I got one of the coolest calls I have got in a LONG LONG while. "How would you like to play in the Premier League?" Was this a trick question? Nope. It was the real deal. Unreal. Wow. Turns out that Doyle Brunson pulled out and I was the lucky replacement.
Truly an incredible opportunity. And so truly stoked.
Here is who is playing.
Hellmuth, Me, Rousso, Negreanu, De Wolfe, JC Tran, Tony G, Timoshenko, Luke "Full Flush" Schwartz (Aka "Bubblegum Schwartz")*, Benyamine and two more players (one from an online qualifier on party poker, and one of the sponsored pros that party poker has). 12 people in all.
*Bubblegum Schwartz. I like this nickname better and have decided to go with it in spite of being the only one at this point. During the World Poker Open (The thing I won in London for 250k in October) he was chewing some gum. I started calling him "Bubblegum" (with his permission) and though it never stuck, I found that I liked it to much to just let it go. So if the news media and whoever could help me out with this it would be much appreciated. I think it rolls off the tongue nicely as well.
As a fun aside I went to the Hendon Mob and listed everyone’s lifetime tourney earn next to their name. Here is that list.
Hellmuth 10,991,871
Laak 1,807,382
Rousso 2,413,166
Negreanu 12,432,367
Roland 4,609,321
Jc 7,956,635
Tony G 4,047,471
Timoshenko 3,233,454
Luke full flush 249,134
Benyamine 3,471,679
One online qualifier ?
One team party professional ?
Negreanu and Hellmuth were 2nd and 4th all time on the Hendon Mob all time money list. That is so sick. Wow. That is a lot of dough. As far as this list goes if you add it all up it comes to 47,064,090. Of the nine invited pros, their sum (not including mine) is 45,256,708 dollars. Incredible. I will be up against a minimum of 45 million dollars in tourney lifetime winnings. Sick.
In the press release stuff I thought it would be funny to let Luke know that there would be free sandwiches. In comedy, this is called a "call back". A call back is where you refer back to something that may or may not have been funny in an attempt to now be funny. In this "call back" moment I was alluding to Luke's snatching a sandwich in some casino in London, getting caught, and getting in trouble for it. In reading the press stuff, I am not sure that it lived up to what I had hoped for in it being funny. But well, whatever.
I flew up to Vegas (in LA now) a few days ago and did some preliminary interviews and stuff. It was all good. The oddball thing was that right as I walked into the casino the first guy I saw was Jesse May! This threw me off a bit. I am so used to seeing him only in London or Cardiff that it caught me off bit a bit. I was able to catch a flight back that night which was nice.
Jesse May. This guy is great. I have read A LOT of poker books (nearly all of them.. more or less..) and out of all of them his is for sure EASILY in the top 3. It was called Shut Up And Deal. It is a great story about him being in AC playing limit poker during a snow storm. It is riddled with good stuff and worth the time. You may also know him from his commentary stuff he does regularly on the poker shows that they have in Europe. He does a lot of them and his off hand comments at times are priceless.
Anyway,,, I diverge. This is a post about the Premier League.
Though the entry fee is 100,000 the payout structure is rather smooth. The money is distributed in two parts. The first is based on a points system where you collect points during your 4 prelim matches. And the second is based on how you do at the final table (should you get enough points to play it.) It is a smoother distribution than the typical tournament. (In a typical event the top 10% are in the money and the rest, well the rest get nada.)
The other thing that makes this event different is this. ADDED MONEY. Yup! They are in fact adding 300,000 dollars to the prize pool. This is HUGE. For every 100,000 dollar entry fee received, they are adding 25,000 dollars. HUH??? CRAZY COOL is what I say!
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Paying the entry fee. I had 20 Bellagio flags with me and it sure felt weird handing that over. 100k of real live money to play in this thing. I remember when I was in college dreaming of the day when my net worth would be 10,000. And here I was handing over 10 times that as an entry fee to a game I happened to love. Time sure is a weird thing.
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I will be blogging about this hair raising thing from time to time, and if you are reading this thing... I think I will start to be a bit more regular.
Cheers!
Phil Laak
Degen for Life
c235bcaf-55d4-43c3-8cd4-8189a99fe2eb|6|5.0
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Feb
10
by Phil
I have not blogged in a long while. Sorry about that. A lot has happened since I last dropped in.
1) London
2) My surf board
3) Diet changes
4) Movies I recently saw
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1) London. Went there about a week ago and it was cold. The hotel I stayed in was good and bad. (No. 5 Cavendish Square.)
Good stuff. Room was Red. (I like red) The style of the room was what you imagine a vampire would have in his room. Velvet reds etc. Awesome.
Building was funky - sort of a converted old type of building and they kept nearly all of the original charm. (Old stuff rules). Super cool.
Internet - wifi - etc... all state of the art and no problem setting up the thing. Nothing worse than internet hicups on the road.
Close to the Vic. I only played one time the whole week... but since I had planned on more drop ins I still give it a plus for locale.
One minute walk to a very good gym, lap pool included. (At the Langham Hotel - Expensive as all get out.. but worth it.)
Bad stuff Cavendish Square (location): This locale is a bad place for late night eats. Being part vampire this is impt to me.
The house cleaning people left at 4 pm (ish). Huh? There are times where I want the room cleaned after this. (Small minus)
One time I lost my key, and they were not able to hand me a new one. This was semi perplexing as it was only a key CARD, and not an actual key. One of the staff had to go up to the room with me each time to let me in. It took them about a day to sort this key thing out for me.
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2) My surf board.
It is in the garage. And I am sad to report that it has not been in the water yet. This is not due to me being lazy. Just doing diff stuff and have not got to it yet.
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3) Diet changes.
On Jan 1 I weighed myself and did not believe the scale. Going to a different scale I discovered that in fact I had reached my all time highest weight of my entire life. 216. I was stunned. About 3 times in the last 5 or so years I noticed that I got to 210. Each time it happened I got sort of back into eating semi right, and sort of started going to the gym a bit. And all three times I got my weight down to 195 or so and then sort of let myself slip again.
Not this time. This will be the last time. My goal is 190. And when I get there I plan on staying there or very close to there for a LONG time coming. If I get my way it will hover in that range til I die.
216.?? I decided that until I get to 190 I was going to eat as close to optimal as possible and become friends with the gym to the tune of 5 or 6 days a week. It is working. Things are going in the right direction. (By the way, when I arrive at 190 I plan on keeping on track, but am looking forward to the occasional cheat. Diet wise that is.)
Until that day here are some of the more substantial changes that I have been consistent with since Jan 1. (40 days now). And plan on sticking with til I am 190. (then I will still stay true, but will allow myself the occasional cheat... ie popcorn shrimp, mint chocolate ice cream, and the occasional bit of cheese.)
No fried food. Yes, true. For 40 days now I have not had a french fry, shrimp tempura roll, potatoe chip, or for that matter ANYTHING fried.
No ice cream and no cheese.
Nearly no pasta, white rice or white bread.
Lots of fish, veges, and chicken. And lots of green tea.
And I have been a gym rat for 30 mins to 120 mins a day / 5 to 6 days
Currently I am at 198.8 (yes, I love that my scale is digital and can do the decimal stuff.)
The toughest part about losing weight is two fold.
No matter how focused and determined you are it is not a one day thing. It is a the sort of thing that has to blend into your entire life for you to have a shot at it. This is a bitch. I am generally good at starting things, and historically not as good at following thru. To be honest, I am a bit worried for me. There are so many ways for this to go wrong and only one way for it to go right. When I get to 195, and then 190 I will let you all know.
The other tough part is that my right knee has this thing were it is rarely happy when I run. A long while back I used to be a nutso runner guy. Multiple 10ks (10 kilometers, not 10 thousand... lol). One marathon. And just a mish mash of stuff here and there. Somewhere in there I messed up my knee. Not totally messed up, but just enough to make running for exercise a delicate game of cat and mouse with the pain stuff.
Luckily for me I like to swim (a lot). But unlucky for me I have to drive somewhere first to do it.
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4) Movies that I saw in the last month or two. (I try to see a movie a week. I like to see movies.)
Breach. This was lame. I think it meant to be a gripping true story spy thing. But instead it was boring and it looked like the main guy played by Chris Cooper was wearing makeup. There is no way his lips had that color red.
Fantastic Mr Fox. Cute, but from all the loving reviews I heard about it I thought I was going to like it more.
Avatar. This was the coolest flick I have seen in a LONG LONG time. Wow. I wanted to be there. I wanted to run thru that forrest and be flying around on those funky creatures.
Sherlock Holmes. Huh? It had its moments but it seemed to zig zag all over the place and to be honest. I had a hard time following whatever I was meant to be following.
Nine. The musical. I think they had the wrong guy (Daniel Day-Lewis) playing the lead. (I didn't believe that he was Italian for one thing). However. I liked this flick A LOT. Some of the musical numbers (especially the one Kate Hudson did) were great. I think it got lame reviews... can't recall. But I liked it.
Youth in Revolt. Holy Cow. This was fantastic. This is one I would see again. Pure gold this movie. Pure gold.
Daybreakers. I have not seen this one yet, hopefully this week. I love vampire movies. I am going out on a branch and I am going to predict that I will like this movie.
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Ok, later.
Phil
7943e471-31d0-46d9-bd52-8e3219c1317e|4|4.8
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Feb
9
by Chad Holloway
Sometimes the answer to tilt is a little Call of Duty.
I’ve made preparations to attend the World Series of Poker circuit event in Council Bluffs, Iowa that runs from February 18 thru March 2, 2010. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to play the duration; in fact, I can only manage to go for a few days. I will be there from Feb. 24-26, which isn’t ideal but will still allow me to get some lucrative cash game action in. I will also play their Event #17, a $345 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. tournament. I’m long overdue for a poker excursion and I’ve always enjoyed the circuit events. I’m hoping to have some UnaBomber Poker gear or patches to wear by that time as well.
Poker on TV has been keeping me entertained recently. A couple weeks back I watched Phil claim victory on Poker After Dark by outlasting Annette Obrestad, Mike Matusow, Erick Lindgren, and Phil Hellmuth. Laak also defeated Antonio Esfandiari heads-up for the $120k. which was entertaining to say the least. Speaking of entertaining, watching the two of them heckle Hellmuth as he blinded himself away was priceless. Congrats to Phil on that win. ESPN has also started to air the WSOP-Europe Main Event. I haven’t watched it yet, but it’s waiting for me on my DVR.
In other poker news, I’ve been on a bad run in recent weeks. This isn’t due so much to bad cards, but to my bad play. I’ve been struggling with two major problems: bankroll management and tilt. I’ve been risking way too much money every time I play and can’t seem to walk away when things aren’t going my way. Top this off with some really bad steaming and it makes for a dangerous situation. I’m going to try righting the ship by tightening my game and finding outlets for my tilt other than trying to make things happen. I know how important it is for successful poker players to exhibit control, over themselves and their bankroll, but this is proving easier said than done. It is something I know I need to work on and I’m making it a priority.
I hate to overlap on a topic that Phil talks about often, but I started playing Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 (COD 2) and it is fantastic. I started off terribly but after a few hours I started getting back into the swing of things (I used to play the first one) and quickly rose through the ranks. I haven’t played online with Phil yet, but I should get his gamer-tag . . . for some reason I think that’d be a wicked good time.
My next blog will focus on some more WSOP Fantasy Poker stats. More specifically, I will reveal the top ten six-handed hold’em tournament players; as well as, the top ten Deuce-to-Seven tournament fantasy studs. These lists ought to help you if you’re planning on playing in a Fantasy Poker league this year, so check back for those.
Jan
22
by Katrina Lim
Dinner, poker and friends made for a great weekend at the Bellagio.
I’m back in Orange after spending a whirlwind weekend in Vega$ at Bellagio with BFF and her family. We had so much fun!! Finally took BFF to Naked Fish and we loved the soft shell crab salad and house special sushi rolls! We also stopped at the liquor store to pick up some “supplies” for the birthday weekend as happy hour was everyday before dinner at the Bellagio. Had lunch at Todd English’s Olives and ventured back to Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill where I shared a 22 ounce rib eye with Mr. Tim fer dinner. Both of us were so full and we still had enough meat for another full meal! Had a shot o’ Patron with Mr. Tim & Mr. Tyler. Happy Birthday Tyler!!! Then on Sunday we enjoyed dinner at Rumjungle and saw Lion King at Mandalay Bay. A quick fun weekend. And I was able to squeeze in some poker too! Got some $1/$2 and $2/$5 action at Bellagio and Ballys.
Also want to give a special thanks to Steve and Mel for meeting me and playing with me at Ballys and Bellagio and treating me to breakfast Friday morning. Good to see both of you again and I had lotsa fun playing with you! Hope to see you two soon!
BFF and I won some $$$ betting on the Jets too. We watched both football games and even though football isn’t as fun fer me as some Kobe, it sure was fun to watch when yur team wins ya some ca$h too! I still gotta ca$h out my Bellagio ticket!
The weather here in CA is awesome! Storms and more storms! There can never be too much rain in sunny CA. We need it! Cleans up the air and makes the flowers grow. I am really enjoying this current barrage of rain.
Now fer the fun part…bro helped me set up a new bomb ass entertainment center! I now have a 50” plasma to play all my 360 and PS3 games on! I am catching up on all my blu-rays in style. And…I am enjoying all this video game carnage in 5.1 digital surround sound too!!! It’s like being in the video game itself!! Watching Kobe is like having a courtside seat now!! Life is good.
All my pals are back from Bahamas but I haven’t had a chance to catch up. Just been chillin’ here and getting ready fer the Mexican Riviera cruise. Gonna get back to work tomorrow at Hawaiian Gardens fer the rest of the week and grind again. The diet is still going well. I was so good in Vega$ too…eating healthy. Eating lotsa salmon and steamed broccoli and asparagus at HG fer lunch.
Prayers for Haiti and help if you can.