Feb
11
by Phil
Holy cow… opened my email this morning and couldn’t have been happier. I was cc’ed on an email to Jennifer and she is officially in. This will be her fourth year to play the NBC heads up tournament at Caesar’s this March 4th – 7th.
I woke up before her this morning and when she got up a half hour later, I said “Are you ready to play 20 questions?” She said “sure”. I said “Your only hints are that it's good news, and it has to do with an email that I read this morning”. She thought for about 10 seconds and then said… “Am I playing the NBC Poker Heads Up?” and I said, "Wow, 1 question and you nailed it."
If she can plow through the field of 64 as effectively as she handled this game of 20 questions, she just might win it.
Anyway, what a cool bit of news to start to the day.
I’ll keep you in the loop.
Catch you later,
Phil
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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Jan
3
by Phil
Wow. What a great x-mas. In fact it may have been the best one ever. My girl got me the coolest gift EVER. I am the proud new owner of the coolest red (with white stripe down the middle) very sleek and sexy long board. Complete with a foot leash and a wet suit. Wow. I really am the luckiest guy on earth. 2 or 3 years ago I took my first surfing lesson. I had a blast that day and have been meaning to get a board ever since. But being the degen that I am I never seemed to get around to it. (Somehow I did manage to get the surf rack so I would be ready when that day arrived.)
And voila, the day arrived without me even seeing it coming. I can not wait to go and play around the water a bit. Hanging out in the ocean can be about as fun as it gets and with my new toy I feel like a 10 year old kid.
Lets see.... Other than that... What is going on??!?
Oh yes, Antonio's New Year's Eve Party. It was a lot of fun, the party was great and the gambling that followed was also quite fun. At one point Mike the Mouth had to leave the party for another party. He assured us that he would be right back! Unlikely with traffic the way it can be in Vegas on that night. Rast rose to the occasion and bet him 1000$ that he could not get back to the house by 3:30 a.m. (1.5 hrs). Mouth took the bet and promptly collected when he rolled on in at 3:05 a.m.!
Also, other than a playboy mansion party the ratio of girls to guys was the highest I had ever seen. One of my favorite bets of the night was after things had died down and the party was mostly over. (5 am or so. Yes, it actually ended that early!) The degens started betting on what the ratio was closest to. I love degens, I really do. Another great bet was when Antonio bet Robls if Rast thought this was the best party that Antonio had ever had. Rast thought it was and Antonio collected.
The view was perfect for fireworks. And the vibe could not have been better. What a great way for me and my girl to bring in the new year.
Oh yeah, I nearly forgot.
Sometimes when one of us owes another 100 dollars we will "roll it up or down" to either 0 or 1000. And somewhere in the mix a series of bigger and bigger 50 50 bets started happening. All done with dice.
I have been having a long struggle with not doing flips anymore (In 2008 I got really hammered.) But for some reason I could not resist. Every time I joined the fun I lost, and being the sick degen I am could not stop. Lose big or get unstuck was my mantra. I managed to get stuck and unstuck a total of 3 times before things just went haywire and I could not lose. It felt amazing that ride ... it really did.
When the dust had settled Antonio was even, I was up 9k, Rast was up 3k and someone else was up 13k. Robls lost 25k to us. Gross. Well, gross for him that is. For me I have officially ushered in the new year on a 9k up note from 50 50s.
Anyway, that's it for now!
Phil
a244000a-3c32-4741-ad29-3413a1e1ac25|4|4.8
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