Monday, July 13, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
Poker is all about the individual–to win you have to beat the other eight people sitting at the table with you, and all the other people in the room. The pronouns typically used are “I” and “you” and “me” and “them”–not “we”, not “us”. For you to succeed, they must fail. Their pain is your gain…and vice-versa.
But even poker players are capable of rooting for others to succeed, especially when they share a vested interest. And that’s what’s behind the tournament currently playing out in the Brasilia Room, the first Dream Team Poker event at the World Series of Poker. Teams of three players take to the felt and battle each other while cheering on their teammates, with prizes awarded for both team and individual success. The overall team score is calculated (based on when each player gets knocked out) and so even if you get bounced from the event you can cheer on your teammates and maybe make some nice money.
Which is what happened to my friends Pauly, Dan and Lana, who just won the team portion of the event. Lana got knocked out early on the first day but Dan and Pauly both made deep runs (both finishing in the teens) to lock up the team title when there were still 21 players left. Of course me and a bunch of my fellow media types skulked away from the Main Event to see the moment when Team Tao of Pokerati clinched the title:
And if you think that team poker isn’t all skill, consider that the WSOP Media tournament was also a Dream Team event, and that Lana’s team also won first place in that, and that Pauly’s team (of which I was a member) took third. See. All skill. And did I mention I (well, we) finished third???
You’ll notice that the three champs are all wearing identical jerseys–in these events you pick a team name and they supply jerseys for you to wear in the event. And I have to admit that I got a little bit too excited when I picked up my royal blue jersey with black trip before the media event. I went around Brasilia yesterday and took some shots of the more interestingly-named teams.
I think we can all relate to this:
Dunno if this person neutralizes Swiss people, or if he’s a Neutralizer from Switzerland. Nor do I know if that matters:
If you read Bloom County you’ll get this, if not…not:
Uh…I’ll just post this without comment:
And cueing Ray Parker, Jr:
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, Dream Team Poker, team poker, world series of poker, WSOP
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Monday, April 6, 2009 - Tiffany M
Everyone has been buzzing about the Dream Team Poker tournament that took place last weekend at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Poker players obviously play a whole lot of poker, jumping from tournament to tournament which can get a little mundane but because this event had a team format was out of the norm and really fun. At the welcoming cocktail party it was hilarious to see each team’s jersey hanging on the wall and read all the creative team names. People had a lot of fun putting together their teams and being thematic and/or wacky with their team name. I think my favorite team name was Kristy Gazes & Jerry Yang’s team comprised of one female and two men thus the team name “Four Nuts, Six Hands and a Rack”. As you can probably tell the atmosphere wasn’t too serious. People ditched their poker faces in order to have a few laughs, poker fun at this game and it’s players.
Poker is usually such a solo game where ‘friendships’ don’t exist at the table so this tournament was a chance to root each other on as well as gang up on other teams. Lacey Jones and Maria Ho were on my team, team “Yo Mama” which was only one of two All-Girl teams competing (see picture below). We did a lot of friendly smack talking at the pre-party and came in the next morning ready to rumble! (You can see the pic below that I snapped with last year’s Dream Team Winner Matt Parvis from team “Bluff” and his championship ring). The huge baseball-like sports jerseys weren’t exactly the most fashionable outfit for Lacey, Maria and I… yes this is something you think about as girl poker player, ha ha. But we didn’t want to be divas and stick up our nose towards our team jersey so we each found our own way to make it work and I have to admit we made those oversized man shirts look pretty hot!
I had a ton of friends and fellow pros playing in the event so it was inevitable that when I got seated there were three familiar faces at my table; Yancey Arias, Nick Gonzales and Casey Thompson. Minutes before the tournament started Casey and I agreed to a last longer bet and then a minute or two later we discovered that we were at the same table which made it convenient for me to keep tabs on him. I ended up knocking him out a few hours into the tournament… $100 bucks for Tiffany, CHA-CHING! Sitting directly to my left was Nick Gonzales who I’ve known for several years through the Hollywood poker scene. He’s a talented actor and a great poker player (he recently took 2nd place in the WPT Celebrity Invitational). Be sure to look for him in the new Fox show ‘Mental’ coming out May 29th! As much as you hate to be seated next to a friend on the battlefield of a poker table we had so much fun catching up, bantering and entertaining the entire table. (There’s a pic below of me being silly with Nick).
Team “Yo Mama” played very well but slowly towards the end of the day we each faded out of the tournament. I’m not a huge fan of dishing all the hand details of a tournament because we’ve all been there and know how it goes but I think it’s significant to mention that I was eliminated with Aces. We got it all-in on a 558 rainbow flop which looked pretty safe for my aces however my opponent flopped QUAD 5’s…. eww. I believe in poker miracles but this time I started walking away from the table before even seeing a turn or river. I had a good feeling the runner-runner aces were NOT coming, not on this day. I was actually okay with that… just as long as my miracle cards show up when I really need them, oh… say in events like the WSOP Main Event!! 
Even though we didn’t clench the coveted title (congrats to Jamie Gold’s team for accomplishing that) we had a ton of fun and look forward to our next chance to play some friendly, team poker. Well, that’s your wrap up from the Dream Team Poker Tourney 2009. LJ, MHo and I can’t wait for team “Yo Mama” to riiiiiide again… and believe me, we will!
Tags: Caesars Palace, Dream Team Poker, Jamie Gold, Jerry Yang, Kristy Gazes, Lacey Jones, las vegas, Maria Ho, Matt Parvis, WPT Invitational
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Friday, April 3, 2009 - P0ker J0
Hello UB!
Friday again huh? This week went by faster than a Bon Jovi encore! Wow – I must be getting old! As always – another interesting week in Team UB land!
We saw Annie Duke last another week on Celebrity Apprentice. Did you see it? It was an Annie Duke I’d never seen before! I think if Annie ever decides to open up a hotel, I’d sure be one of the first guests – ESPECIALLY if she was at the Bell Desk! Seriously though Annie – congrats again for lasting this long. I think her strategy is becoming a bit more evident now as the episodes progress. Don’t forget you can get Annie’s “behind the scenes” blog here.
Well it sounds like everyone had a blast at the Dream Team Poker Challenge in Vegas! Even though Jamie Gold’s team won, team Hellmuth, team Hollywood Dave, team Binger and team Tiffany Michelle all made us proud! A great turnout by all!
You’ve heard P0ker H0 and Annie on Rounders Radio – are you ready for this though?? The great P0ker H0 and the infamous Wiscosmurray can now be heard on live radio in the WI area. They are launching the Man Up show on WTDY on the MidWest Family Broadcast on Saturday mornings at (wait for it…………………) 7:00 AM!!!! I mean who would have thought poker players would even be up that early. The ONLY time I have EVER seen a poker player up that early is when they haven’t been to bed yet!!! Anyway – it should prove to be a very entertaining program. They will of course be talking poker, but intuition leads me to think that they’ll take it up a notch. I’m just on the edge of my seat waiting to hear all about it.
So rock star to poker star!! Did you see our very own Scott Ian take down the 200k on Sunday? Check out his blog about it here – and YES, tha is Keanu Reeves in the photographs!! Anyway, he has been working his ASS off playing poker for the last few years. I first met Scott when he won the VH1 Rock Stars of Poker that UltimateBet sponsored a few years ago. I have always found Scott to be one of the most genuine down to earth kinda guys. I couldn’t be happier for him! This was a huge triumph for him and he deserves it! Way to go Scott!! Don’t forget we still have to finish having that conversation about how you should grow your hair so I can teach you to backcomb!! 
So what’s next? Well the WPT Bellagio event is in a few weeks. Seems like there will be a good sized UB group there and so many of the pros will be there. Check back next week on my blog for full details of how you can hang with Team UB in Vegas!
Well that’s all for P0ker J0 this week! Have a good one and see you next Friday!
P0ker J0
Tags: Annie Duke, Bellagio, Bon Jovi, Celebrity Apprenctice, Dream Team Poker, Jamie Gold, Keanu Reeves, MidWest Family Broadcasting, P0ker H0, Phil Hellmuth, Scott Ian, ultimatebet, VH1, WPT, WTDY
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Friday, March 27, 2009 - P0ker J0
Hello UBers!
Well I just have to bring myself to talk Celebrity Apprentice first! Wow Annie makes it through another week AND survived the chopping block as the girls lost for the first time. I won’t repeat everything Annie writes in her weekly Celebrity Apprentice BLOG – but you now have two places to read about her thoughts. One is her own BLOG and a newly created section on the UB BLOG where Annie talks about how her strategy on the show is a lot like her poker strategy. I hope you enjoy as much as I have been.
So in between all the Celebrity Apprentice press, Annie has been a twittering freak. She has more followers each week. I think there might even be a secret race for followers between her and Phil. Mr. Hellmuth continues to embrace this new technology. He has been talking a lot lately about how much money he as been losing playing chinese poker! Follow Annie on twitter and follow Phil on twitter.
Phil and Annie’s websites have both recently been revamped. Check them out at www.annieduke.com and www.philhellmuth.com. You will see a vast improvement in not only look and feel but also functionality. Bookmark them today!
So a big weekend in Vegas this coming weekend. I have so many of my pros headed to Caesars Palace to participate in the Dream Team Poker event. It is a new and unique spin on poker where teams of three compete creating even more financial incentives than standard poker. We have Phil Hellmuth teaming up with Mike “the mouth” Matusow and Jerry Buss; Hollywood Dave will be teaming up with Ericka Shoenberg and her father; Tiffany Michell will be teaming up with Lacey Jones and Maria Ho and Michael Binger is joining forces with his brother Nick and Liv Boeree (Absolute Poker’s gal!). It will be interesting to see how this takes off. The event is compeletely sold out! I’m sure there will be twittering and video blogs to follow! Go Team UB!!
Well I that is all she wrote for today folks! Have a fantastic weekend!
P0ker J0 xoxoxoxoxo
Tags: Annie Duke, Caesars Palace, Celebrity Apprentice, Dream Team Poker, Ericka Shoenberg, Hollywood Dave, Jerry Buss, Liv Boeree, Michael Binger, Mike Matisow, Phil Hellmuth, Tiffany "Tiffany M" Michelle, Twitter
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Wednesday, March 25, 2009 - HollywoodDave
OK, so after going back and forth to Philly a time or two, I’m back in LA and packing for Vegas! Tomorrow is my good friend Erica Schoenberg’s birthday (she’s younger than me but has always been like a big sister to me) so we are gonna go do dinner & par-tay a little bit… can’t wait! This week has been especially shitty for me online (I had my first winning session in a week tonite and it was for a whole dollar!) so I’m lookin’ forward to a little R&R.
Then on Friday the Dream Team Poker tourney jumps off at Caesar’s, where once again I’ll be reppin’ Team Diablo with Erica & her dad! Last time around her dad actually made it to the final table so this weekend Erica and I will have to pull our weight! Should be a fun event & its def been getting some good press so hopefully this turns into a semi-annual event. Nice to go battle with other teams of talented players for cash & bragging rights!
So in order to get ready for my trip this week, I brought my BMW in for service and they were out of other BMW loaner cars, so they gave me choice between driving a PT Cruiser, Camry, or a Smartcar for a few days — needless to say I picked the lil tiny Smartcar and man did I have a blast! These cars are so frickin’ tiny but are actually pretty zippy, and on top of getting like 50 mpg also can squeeze into the most ridiculously small parking spaces! lol Plus it reminded me of one of my favorite places on Earth — Nice, France. I hung out there for a week once in a room with a balcony overlooking a crowded little intersection full of people, shops, and tons of tiny little Smartcars. It was awesome — 3 blocks from the Mediterranean Sea and perfect for writing my next novel! (And hey, if you don’t have my first one — ‘Hollywood Blackjack’ — what the fuck is wrong with you?? Stop by Amazon and pick one up already!!)
Thanks to Annie Duke’s persuasion, I’ve finally succumbed to the Twitter bug. In fact I think most of us UB pros are on there now. Stop by and add me for some fun updates: www.twitter.com/Hollywood_Dave
Speaking of Duke, the battle over our 10-Step prop bet is gettin’ fierce! For those of you who don’t know, she challenged me to a race to a WSOP 12k main event prize package on UB’s new Steps satellites — the catch being, we’re only allowed to buy in at Step One for 10 cents!! Awhile ago I blogged that I had amassed a handful of Step 4 tickets but they’ve long since bombed away, the farthest level I could get to being Step 5. So for the past few days I’ve played a few dozen Step Ones an have so far built up about 10 more Step 1 tix and 20 or so Step 2’s. I’ve spent a total of 7 bucks so far on this prop bet and will get that up to 10 bucks even before taking all my accumulated Step 1 & 2 tix and try to make the run all the way up to Step 10!!
OK rock stars, time for sleep and then off to Vegas in the morning. Holla later –
-hd.
Tags: Add new tag, Amazon, Annie Duke, BMW, Dream Team Poker, Erica Schoenberg, Smartcar, Twitter
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Friday, March 20, 2009 - Tiffany M
February wasn’t a terribly exiting poker month so lets talk about the exciting things that are going on in my life away from the tables!
On the acting side of my career things seem to be picking up. I’ve had a few super cool auditions this week. One was for a Matt Damon movie to play his leading love interest. I mean, it’s no Rounders sequel but I don’t think any of us poker fans want to see them even attempt that! At least if I shot a movie with Matt I know I wouldn’t be bored in between takes since I’d have a poker pal on set to play with.
My management just confirmed that I’ll be joining Erica Schoenberg and Evelyn Ng for a ‘sexy poker chick’ photo shoot in April for Knockout Magazine. .. in BIKINIS. Yikes, I’d better stay away from the French fries and try to get some good workouts in between the long hours sitting on my butt at the poker tables.
Speaking of magazines I recently shot the March cover of Rounder magazine! We did a sexy, fun and funky photo shoot in Vegas at Panorama Towers a few weeks ago. I love getting all dolled up for a photo shoot especially since everyone usually only sees me hiding under a hat or hoodie at a poker table surrounded by a bunch of men. It’s refreshing to step away from the game for a moment and be 100% girlie. I’m definitely looking forward to doing more with the magazine in the future, possibly a special issue during the WSOP. Be sure to pick up your March copy!
At the end of month I’ll be playing in the Dream Team Poker tournament at Caesars palace along with my girls Maria Ho and Lacey Jones. We have given ourselves the team name “Yo Mama”… cracks me up every time I say it! Anyone interested in creating their own team and participating is welcome to do so, you can visit the Dream Team’s website for more info.
Other than that I’m just gearing up for the World Series and will be popping in some events at the WPT Five Star tournament next month as well as the WSOP Caesars Circuit event to warm up my little fingers for a summer of poker! Stay tuned!
Here’s a sneak peek of a picture I snapped real quick with my phone while on
set of my Rounder magazine shoot
Tags: Dream Team Poker, Erica Schoenberg, Evelyn Ng, Knockout Magazine, matt damon, rounders, world series of poker
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