Friday, November 13, 2009 - Bryan Devonshire
This weekend the WSOP main event final table went down here in Vegas and obviously the weekend revolved around that. Saturday I wasn’t terribly interested in going early as I knew that it’d be going late, and by the end of the night I ended up not going. I was called in to do commentary at like 2:30am but I was already away from the phone. I tried to get myself in earlier but I just couldn’t crack through the Maven and Hollywood Dave.
Sunday I made a deep run in the Sunday mill, busting somewhere around 90th unfortunately. I’ve been making a lot of deep runs lately, including 13th in the 1k 6max FTOPS last night, good for a bit over $50k this week. I had a wristband for stage seats for the heads up match but lasted long enough in the ftops for them to finish their little heads up duel. My backer also has Joe. I texted him mid match and something like, “Thats right, in the money, y’all can rely on ol Devo to keep y’all afloat.” LOL. They had a good week.
So I got down there in time for the festivities. Obviously, Devo doesn’t show up until the beer is free. I hung out for a while watching picture after interview, and it was an amazing atmosphere. The group of Cada crazies, all young, all having a helluva time. After everything was over we were lead into one of the Palazzo suites, and man was it amazing. Ty Rio! Food, open bar, the bathroom had a bidet, beday, bedae, however you spell it, but I didn’t have the courage to poop and use it. I spent most of my time hanging with Tony Gugiano and Cliff. Somebody announced to be at the ESPNZone at NYNY at 5:15pm for the viewing party.
Woke up the next day late, and I tried to install a new fan onto my laptop. I printed the instructions for how to change it out, didn’t read em, turned off the laptop, got out a screwdriver, and was ready to go to work.
Steps 1-3 talk about turning it off. Step 4: Remove the battery. This is easy.
Step 5: Remove the following components:
a. Hard drive. What?
b. Optical drive. Seriously?
c. Switch cover. What’s that?
d. Keyboard. That’s where I stopped. It goes to: l. System board. I called Fry’s and asked how much to install it, $150, I think I’m just going to buy a desktop.
So I headed down to the ESPNZone and there was a table with a pile of Doyle’s new book and a line. Hmm lot of people here. Turns out that it’s the official viewing party, and I wasn’t on the list. Somebody screwed up in telling everybody to go there. Jonathan Little was there, he wasn’t on the list either, and it took us about 30 minutes to get in. We’re so 2008. If they knew how much face time he was going to get they would have let him in immediately. So that party was fun, after that we headed to Pure for the official club party, had a good time and a blur of an evening.
Tomorrow Jon Little, Hoyt Corkins and myself are going jeeping. Stoked!
Peace and good luck,
Devo
Tags: Doyle's, ESPN Zone, FTOPS, Hollywood Dave, Vegas, WSOP
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Wednesday, September 23, 2009 - HollywoodDave
OK so not to go all New Age-y on you guys, but lately I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the power of positive thinking. Not in “The Secret”-kinda way, in which we specifically manifest certain outcomes based on fervent visualization, but rather more of an all-purpose stress reliever. To be honest, I’ve noticed as I’ve grown the past couple years that my thought patterns have become increasingly negative and as an adult, its my responsibility not to be held hostage any thoughts or behaviors that hold me back from being the best person I can be.
By negative I don’t mean fixating on doom-and-gloom scenarios for my future as much as just catching myself in the moment expecting the worst despite the odds being just as much in my favor as against. Somewhere along the way, the glass became half-empty rather than half-full. I didn’t notice it for the longest time because at any given moment if I were to think about my hopes, dreams and aspirations for the future, of course I knew I would continue to strive each and every day towards success in my goals not only as a professional gambler, but as an actor, artist, writer, and producer as well. Poker and blackjack to me has always just been a glorified survival job (albeit one with incredible perks!), but at the end of the day I’ve never stopped my pursuit of success in the arts.
Thing is, despite having such a clear picture of the not-so-distant future, along the way the present stopped looking so perfect. For awhile it was easy to blame it on random negative circumstances around me, like running bad in poker or a death in the family. But recently I’ve been coming to terms with the fact that my default, present-moment position is one of skepticism and doubt — rather than the positive view I have for my future. And i’m starting to realize that in order for the future positivity to come about, the present must match it with equal intensity.
In poker this manifests as assuming we will win the big one “one day,” but whenever we are in a coinflip for our stack in the present moment, thinking we will obv be on the wrong side. Or that our all ins with flush or straight draws will inevitably miss. And so this elusive perfect future, which is challenging enough to achieve, suddenly has the additional roadblocks of our present moment negative thought processes as well. Those overcards or flush draws are going to happen or not, on their own merits — so why complicate the situation with unnecessary burdens along the way?
Positive thinking is really about positively increasing one’s daily quality of life. The future will take care of itself (and hopefully one has the biggest and boldest of dreams to strive toward), so changing our present-moment thoughts to more positive ones at the very least makes us happier & certainly couldn’t hurt our chances of achieving our dreams one bit! And given the choice to live each moment to its fullest and brightest or not, i choose the positive approach. Or at least I’m consciously trying to, anyway…. our pattern of thoughts doesn’t change overnight. It took years to develop these mental crutches and I’m hoping with a little effort it won’t take nearly as long to rebound.
So that’s been my week, folks. Deep thoughts & a strong desire to change for the better. Amazing what a couple days in LA will do for ya! 
rock on –
-hd.
Tags: Hollywood Dave, New Age, Poker Poker Poker, positivity, The Secret
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Tuesday, September 8, 2009 - Scott Ian
It’s September and summer is “officially” over, the kids (if I had kids) are back at school and we’re on a fast train to Xmas, with one really nice stop on the way…Aruba.
I can’t believe it’s that time of year already. Twenty-five days until I’m in Aruba for UB’s tourney of tourneys. This is the big one my friends and it’s not to be missed.
This is going to be my third time in Aruba and I am looking forward to this trip even more than the previous two. It definitely doesn’t get old. It’s the one place I can play poker and relax at the same time. The poker environment in Aruba is as intense as anywhere but it’s much more kickback at the same time. I can only guess it’s the sea, the sun, the air, and the DRINKS! Can I get a bucket of Balashi’s over here right now?? If this is going to be your first time to Aruba, Balashi is the local beer and it’s good. There’s my tip of the week.
My first trip to Aruba was in 2007. I won my seat after winning the VH1 Rock & Roll Poker Tourney. I had just started playing poker seriously at the time and I have to admit I was really intimidated about Aruba. I had no idea what it was going to be like. It was also going to be my first big live tourney!! I was going there without knowing anyone except Phil Hellmuth Jr who I had met for five minutes. My fiancé Pearl and I got there and were immediately welcomed by Jo Priam and all of the UB pro’s, management and staff into the family. It’s that kind of atmosphere. UB really goes out of its way to make everyone feel like a part of the team in Aruba. You’ll see. There’s a reason for such strong brand loyalty and it all stems from how cool everyone that works for UB is. This may sound kiss-assy but it’s true. The hospitality provided for all is five-star.
We became fast friends with Phil and Debo and Poker Ho and Shawn Rice and Annie and her man Joe and Hollywood Dave and Wisco and Jim “Krazy Kanuck” Worth and Robert Williamson III etc etc. I got to play a lot of poker and even got some lessons from these masters while having a blast every night. It was a great way to go to poker school.
My first big tourney started OK and about half way through level three I ended up getting all my money in post flop with a set of J’s on a Q high board. Poker Ho was standing across the table from me and saw me shove and gave me a “You got the nuts?” kind of look. I raised my brows back at him thinking I was about to double up when the caller turned over his pair of Q’s and I was done. Oops. My first tourney and I’m out set over set. I wasn’t bummed at all; at that point in my poker career there was no way I could’ve folded. These days my Spider-Sense would’ve been going off like a fire alarm and I’d make an amazing lay down. At least in my dreams that’s what happens.
So I bust out on day one and I’ve got a week in paradise. That’s what’s great about Aruba. And, there’s so much poker going on non-stop that you’ll never be looking for a game. Last year I was heading to Aruba a different poker player. UB had signed me and I’d had a year of lessons and tourneys and thousands of hands played. I also knew everyone going in so it was basically going to be a poker vacation with my friends. Once again the whole operation was first class. I have to mention Matt Savage and his crew as well because he is a huge part of making this a great event. Matt’s tournament philosophy is to give the players great value for their money and this structure provides that.
I made it to day three last year and was grinding towards the bubble. I was short stacked about twenty-five from the money when I shoved UTG with KK. The BB talked and talked for three minutes and he finally calls with AJ. I was hoping to take the blinds and antes and keep grinding but a double up would’ve gotten me past the bubble for sure.
He flops and A and the turn and river show me no love at all and I am out. I couldn’t believe it. I had never made it to a day three before and I just couldn’t accept that I was done after all that work. I was going to win it; I couldn’t be out. I got up quickly and headed out of the room. I dimly remember Debo saying something to me from his table as I descended into a darkness that I was not familiar with. The walk back to my room took five minutes and by the time I got there I didn’t know what to do with myself. Pearl was in the room and she asked me what happened and I couldn’t even speak. I was sitting there with my head in my hands in disbelief that someone pulled the emergency brake and my tourney was over. Pearl told me she’d be down by the pool and to come meet her and the rest of our friends down there when I was ready. She’d also never seen me like this and decided it was probably best to get out of the way. It was the weirdest feeling, my sane brain was saying “dude, calm down it’s just a game and you’ll get’em next time” and my insane poker brain was saying “SCOTT SMASH AJ, SCOTT DESTROY YOU AAAARRRRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!” Interesting conversation my brain was having with itself. After a half an hour of trying to calm down crazy Scott-Hulk I got off my sorry ass and found Pearl at the pool. I grabbed a lounge chair, set it down in the shallow end of the pool, was handed a GIANT Pina Colada by Victor Bigio and I let Aruba wash the insanity away. And it did! Twenty minutes later my anger had melted away and it was all fun the rest of the trip. That’s Aruba.
Year three coming up, see you there my friends.
Cheers,
Scott
Tags: Annie Duke, Aruba, Debo, Hollywood Dave, Jo Priam, Krazy Kanuck, Matt Savage, P0ker H0, Phil Hellmuth, Play Poker, Robert Williamson III, ShawnRice, ub, Wisco
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Wednesday, August 26, 2009 - HollywoodDave
That’s right, rockstars — after months in the Vegas desert, I’m back in the land of milk and honey… Hollywood, baby. Unfortunately this trip is just a quick 4-5 days, after which its back to Sin City for another few weeks. So naturally I’ve been packing in as much LA action as I can handle!
Started off with a long-delayed trip to the beach, Santa Monica pier style. Hung out with my dad for his birthday, my 2 bros, and of course my hottie gf MB (hey, any excuse to get her in a bikini…yum). After spending the day there we had dinner on the pier and then back to Hollywood for late nite drinks at my fave hangout, Birds, with some other friends. Good times.
Then yesterday I had lunch with my manager Glen and caught up on all the bizness in my life, and all the exciting things coming up soon. Top of the list is the fact that as of yesterday, I finally received the 100% completed copy of the pilot I’ve been working on all summer: Grifting w/ Hollywood Dave Stann! I watched it like 3x and man is it awesome, exactly how I pictured it all those years ago when I started to dream up the idea in my head. For those of you tuning in late, ‘Grifting’ is my new tv show, in which every week I set out to a new destination around the globe to track down the heart of a particular game, spend time learning it from the masters, then go out into the field to see if I can beat it. Plenty of gameplay, but what I really love about this show is the cultural component — seeing all the ways in which people who are obsessed about the strangest games around the globe eat, sleep, and party!
At this point our production company has done a real bang-up job creating this amazing pilot, and from here we start walking in to networks both domestic and foreign, in order to find a home for the show. I would LOVE to put a link up to the pilot here for you guys to check out, but until we finish the meeting process with it, I have to keep it under wraps. But believe me when I say this show totally rocks!
Other than that, one of the best things about coming back to LA is being able to take some continuing poker lessons with Annie Duke, which is where I’m headed tonite. Years ago I traded blackjack and poker lessons with her, and she gave me the tools I needed to do so well in no limit holdem events… but over the past year or so I’ve been specializing more and more in the HORSE games, and so always look forward to anything more she can teach me in that regard as well. I keep pretty detailed records of my play, both live and online, and feel that although certain areas of my game are pretty solid, I’ve got a few leaks that need special help to correct! And no I won’t tell you guys where the leaks are — until the’re fixed, that is!! lol
In the meantime, I will be putting up some new vidz on my youtube page very soon so chekkit out: www.youtube.com/HollyDeezy
Oh yeah and ps, I booked an audition for the tv show ‘House’ tomorrow so lookout! Also, just over a month til Aruba and I am set!!! See you guys there!
-hd.
Tags: Annie Duke, Aruba, Hollywood, Hollywood Dave, Poker Poker Poker, Vegas
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Wednesday, August 12, 2009 - HollywoodDave
Well my peeps, another week, another FT, baybee! I went down to the Hard Rock here in Vegas (haven’t really left since the WSOP ended lol) the other day to play in the first event of their new Megastack series. Its the first time they’ve put on an official series of events (as opposed to running just dailies etc) so I figured it would be off the radar a bit and ripe with donkalicious rockers ready to be taken down by yours truly. And it did not disappoint!
The field had a couple scattered semi-pros but for the most part these guys loved to drink & wear their tells on their sleeve. There were only about 100 people total playing this inaugural event, and before i knew it i was super deep and approaching the money bubble. What was really awesome as well was the structure of this tourney was really well thought out — usually in the deepstack events at the Venetian or Caesars or whatever, despite how many chips you start with, two or 3 hours in the structure starts skipping crucial levels that make the majority of the field suddenly shortstacked, no matter how many chips in front of them. Not so here at the Hard Rock — even though it took more than 12 hours to go from 100 to the money, i never felt as if the structure skimped on any necessary levels, which made for a lot of great play.
I ran pretty good, picking up big hands often enough — and more importantly, getting paid off on them as well — til inevitably I got my JJ cracked by 77 about 5 people from the money. I still made it to the FT ok but never could recover… it was one of those pots that woulda made me the mega chip leader or crippled, and of course it all came down to the fucking 7 on the river. It was a shame, because I really felt like I was the best player in the field at that point, at even shortstacked at the final table had a lot of confidence that i could still win by picking the right spots and getting the money in good.
Alas it wasn’t to be, and 7th is all I could pull. I ran into too many bigger hands when I had decent ones, and was too short to capitalize on my monsters. All in all, it was good to be back in live action, since one of the last live events I played was one of the Bellagio Cup event last month where I also final tabled (6th in that one). A good vote of confidence if nothing else!
Other than that, just been playing a lot online at UB and looking forward to Aruba. I’ve got that sick suite hooked up at the Occidental next door to the Radisson, and am planning to stay for a full week AFTER the poker party leaves the island… can’t wait! Also my pilot is now officially done & we are shopping international networks til October, then pitching domestically all fall after that. So HD will be back on air soon, bitches!
Alright, rock on, I’m out –
-hd.
Tags: Aruba, Bellagio, Caesars, Hard Rock, Hollywood Dave, Poker Poker Poker, poker tournaments, ub, Vegas, Venetian, WSOP
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Wednesday, July 29, 2009 - HollywoodDave
Is that all you got, UB?? Last week, I sent out an email challenging all our Legends and Icons to try and take me down in a special VIP tourney. To entice you further, UB threw in a $4k prizepool for the final table. And if THAT wasn’t enough, they put a $400 tourney dollar bounty on my head, just to make sure that I’d get called down every time I decided to put money in the middle. So…. what happened???!
I won the damn thing, that’s what! You put up a helluva fight, but at the end of the day, I guess I’ll just have to spend all this 1st place freeroll money myself. Play some tournaments with the TD’s. And try and figure out the next challenge I’ll issue, since this one clearly didn’t go your way. Maybe a blackjack tournament for some more cash? Hmmm…. I’ll figure it out and get back to ya. In the meantime… thanks for the money, boys! lol
In other news, Aruba is right around the corner and I am knee-deep in figuring out travel plans… most importantly, where I’m gonna stay while spending 2 weeks in the sun. Yeah, i know the official poker events only last a week, but HD ain’t goin all the way to Aruba without spending some serious time maxin’ and relaxin’…
Usually the Radisson treats us all so well, but the past year or 2 I’ve found some awesome deals online renting people’s timeshare suites in the adjacent highrises. Last year, for instance, I found a sick one bedroom suite at the Occidental (next door to the Radisson) with 2 gorgeous ocean-front balcony views for about a grand a week. Not bad, plenty of room to stretch out and party, and still close enough for me to walk to my poker seating assignment within 5 minutes!
This time around I think the party’s gonna be bigger and badder than ever — its UB’s tenth anniversary, bitches! And that means pulling out all the stops, so I am on the hunt for a serious party suite. Hellmuth may have Radisson penthouse locked up, but HD is gonna need someplace swank for the afterhours HORSE games that I have planned… be on the lookout!
OK rockstars, i’m out. And if anyone has any good ideas for yet ANOTHER VIP tourney, let me know. Nothing I’d love more than to pwn you all the next time, too…
-hd.
Tags: Aruba, Hollywood Dave, Phil Hellmuth, Poker Poker Poker, poker tournaments, ub, VIP
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Thursday, July 23, 2009 - HollywoodDave
When I was a kid growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, my favorite place to go was our annual summer trip to Cedar Point. Its the world’s coolest amusement park, known for having the best rollercoasters on the planet, and its only 2 hours or so outside Cleveland. So every summer I would eagerly look forward to a weekend full of twisting, turning, high-speed awesomeness!
Years later, I gotta be honest. The rollercoaster rides haven’t stopped, only this time they’re not at the amusement park, they’re on the felt! We all experience the highs and lows of poker (and in my case, professional blackjack as well), but this year for me has been particularly erratic. I’ve had some great highs — winning a WSOP Circuit ring, final tabling a Bellagio Cup event, having some killer sessions online playing poker (and live playing blackjack, hallelujah), but unfortunately for every 2 steps forward it seems as if I’ve also taken 3 steps back.
This is usually the point in my pro blog here on UB that I’d offer some sort of ‘lesson learned’ platitudes, but not so today. Today I’m just frustrated. Frustrated at the negative sessions I’ve had over the past few months practically negating all the successes. And its a frustration I’m sure a lot of you can understand — getting excited about winning a ton one day, only to lose it all back & then some a day later. And its a rollercoaster ride that for once, instead of getting excited over, is starting to make me feel a little sick!
I guess if there is something to be gleaned from these experiences, its that poker, at the end of the day, is a game of swings. Its rarely a straight path upwards, but rather a jagged journey full of plenty of peaks, dips and valleys. And sometimes the best we can do is hold on, focusing on playing well & having the trust that proper money management can see us through the low points until the variance evens out & the wins overtake the losses once again.
What’s difficult for me right now as a professional player is feeling as if I’m playing some of my best poker ever, and having it not ultimately matter at the end of the day. It makes me question and second-guess everything that I rely on in my arsenal of the critical thinking, analytical skills I bring to the tables. There’s only so many times you can get rivered for a monster pot before you start thinking to yourself that maybe there’s something else that you coulda done to avoid the situation. Constant questioning can ultimately be good to improve your game, but at what cost to your in-game confidence along the way?
So, this is where I am this week. Confronting the big questions about my game that hopefully will continue to make me a better player. I know I am on the right track, and I know I have a talent for this game that many others in it don’t share. So I owe it to myself to continue to grow and develop my skills to become the best player I can be. And along the way, maybe I can start to love the crazy rollercoaster ride once again.
-hd.
Tags: Bellagio, Hollywood Dave, Poker Poker Poker, poker tournaments, ub, WSOP
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Sunday, July 12, 2009 - HollywoodDave
Weeeeeellllll…..that’s it for me, peeps. 2 long months of grinding in the desert and here’s looking at some unavoidable final stats:
Played about 8 bracelet events, no cashes! Although on the positive side, i went sooooper deep in almost every event I played, bubblling several (including going out 94th when 90 paid the world’s largest 900+ person Omaha 8 or better event) so I am gonna take this as a sign that I am playing well. I never felt like I ‘accidentally’ went deep or had to suck out to make it…in fact, the story of almost every event for me was that I was practically a chip leader early, went cards dead for hours, managed to pick spots and leverage some hands to make it deep, then got horribly sucked out on in a key hand or 2 to cripple or eliminate me. So I actually get to walk away from the WSOP feeling good despite the less than stellar results!
As far as other events — made 13th in a Golden Nugget Stud 8 event…unfortunately the tourney was sooooo top heavy I only walked with $100 more than my buy in! I made up for it last week, however, going deep in a 400-person field at the Bellagio Cup to take 6th and $7k. And believe it or not I actually played a little blackjack this summer around town, picking up a few grand for my troubles along the way. Amazing — i’ve been playing so much poker, I almost forgot I still have a big edge in blackjack lol
One of the most exciting parts of my summer is my TV show ‘Grifting’ that I shot the pilot for, and as we speak am packing to go back to LA to finish shooting some pickups & do the voiceover for. The shoot went great — we put together a lot of footage of me playing a ton of different games (since the show is about me trying to beat a different game each episode). So for the pilot I ended up playing German skat at a real German community center, English draughts (basically checkers) in an authentic English pub, Magic: the Gathering at a comic book shop against some hardened little dudes (read: my brothers!), backgammon against a master of the game, & mah jongg and Go against some serious Asian grinders in a secret Koreatown club. Totally awesome!
I also got to have some fun this summer, especially last week at a few of the WSOP parties. Of course Ultimatebet threw an awesome event at the MGM’s Studio 54, complete with Hellmuth descending from a lier. I also went to Annie Duke’s private dinner at Lavo over at the Palazzo and got to spend some time with some good poker peeps. And along the way we worked in a pool party BBQ at my sis Erica Schoenberg’s place out in Henderson. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon!
The other nite my hottie girlfriend MB and I went over to the Orleans to see Bill Maher perform, only to find Gus Hansen sitting right next to us. We had a good chat about backgammon before the show started…and it rocked. I’ve seen Bill perform before but he is definitely only getting better with time.
And with that, I gotta get back to the Left Coast for the weekend… rock on & good luck to my friends who are still fighting the good fight in the Main Event, I will be back to sweat you Day 6! Unfortunately SOME of us got locked out of Day 1D as they decided to shut down registration an hour before the event started for the day & then not allow any alternates. I’ve heard the arguments from Harrah’s perspective, but at the end of the day, the one rule should be this: no one should EVER be turned away from the Main Event. EVER. I understand several other bracelet events fill to capacity; that shouldn’t be an issue at the ME. I understand having so many more people on the last day creates an imbalance in the Day 2’s and creates challenges to playing down in 7 days; that still shouldn’t be an issue for the ME. If on Day 5 or 6 you realize you haven’t built in enough time, oh well. Adjust. Add a level to a day of play. Lord knows we’ve seen plenty of final tables go until the next morning after ridiculous heads-up matches this year (50k HORSE went until 10 am or so!). Let the people play. Make adjustments. NO ONE should ever be turned away from the ME. Period.
Alrighty then, rockstars, I’m out!
-hd.
Tags: Annie Duke, Bellagio, Bill Maher, Golden Nugget, Grifting, harrah's, Hollywood Dave, MGM, Phil Hellmuth, Poker Poker Poker, Studio 54, tv, ub, WSOP
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Saturday, June 20, 2009 - HollywoodDave
Hell yeah! its finally here… after bubbling at least a half dozen of the events i’ve played this Series so far (its been pretty sick), I finally get to disappear back to LA for 5 days to go shoot a pilot for the TV show I started pitching last year!
The working title is “Grifting Across America” and in it I travel the country trying to beat every game I can find. Dominoes in the Louisiana bayou, street chess in Washington Square Park, bridge at the Manhattan Bridge Club, Golden Tee in Chicago bar leagues — you name it, I take a crack at it, and have plenty of fun along the way.
I can’t release too much more info while we’re in this phase of development, but suffice it to say things are definitely moving forward at an awesome pace! I spend the next few days in LA shooting tons of footage from different games — everything from Mah Jongg to backgammon to German skat, even some Magic: the Gathering — and then we get to cut together an awesome pilot promo & walk it in to some networks this fall. So my job for the next couple days will just be to kick ass, take names, and try to pwn my way thru a ton of games I’ve barely played before. Hey, after a lifetime of game theory and a mastery of blackjack, poker, and a half dozen other games, I think I’ll be able to apply the basic strategic concepts so universal to game playing and do fairly well in these other games. Either that or have fun trying…
A couple years ago I did a TV show called ‘King of Vegas’ where 12 players each had to fight their way thru daily competitions in blackjack, poker, roulette, craps, pai gow, and other popular casino games. A lot of those events were primarily based on luck, but since it was a competition based on beating the other PLAYERS (rather than the games themselves), I found a way to make better bets and better plays even in the events I had little control over the outcomes, and as a result made it all the way thru to the last episode. Although I bombed out in the 11th hour, i felt like i really accomplished something getting there. This show hopes to prove the same thing, that once you master certain games, you already have a built-in edge going into others.
So next week I hope to have a couple pix to show you and some more fun details of the shoot. Not to mention getting back to some good poker action at the Rio! I think there’s a $2500 Omaha hilo event next Tuesday with my name written all over it. In the meantime, you can follow me on twitter at:
www.Twitter.com/Hollywood_Dave
rock on –
-hd.
Tags: Hollywood Dave, Poker Poker Poker, Rio, Twitter, Vegas
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Sunday, June 7, 2009 - P0ker H0
It’s finally arrived. The 2009 WSOP, and what a great start I’ve had to it. I haven’t even played an event yet either ! Last Friday, I flew out to Vegas with my good friend Wiscomurray. We got in late Friday, and checked into our room. It wasn’t going to be that big of a night, because the rest of the week was busy. I was gonna be teaching at the WSOP Academy, while Wisco was going to play the 1k WSOP Stimulus event. All Saturday, I was busy teaching the Academy, and It never gets old. Each time I get to teach along side someone who has an extremely intelligent poker mind. This time it was Mark Seif. We taught a cash game academy, and being that I focus mainly on tournaments, it was a great thing for not only the campers, but me too. I added some of the innuendos of online poker that aren’t apparent in the live game.
After we were done with the camp on Saturday, I headed back to my room, and when I got there, Wisco was playing online. I was really hungry so I went to go grab a bite to eat, and when I came back 2 hours later, and 10 cocktails deeper, Wisco was out. I was feeling really good at this time, so I looked at him and asked him if he wanted to be a part of history. With a confused look he said, “Sure”. “Give me $400″ was my reply, and to make a long story short, we went down stairs and turned our $800 into $12,000 playing blackjack. Did I forget to mention it was my birthday? Well, if you can, imagine the 2 of us in Vegas, on my birthday, both 4.0 BAC, betting 800 a hand, 11 hands in a row, and winning every one! I want to personally thank Hollywood Dave for turning me into the blackjack phenom that I am today! Crab Cakes and Blackjack. It’s what we do.
For the rest of the trip, all I did was teach at the academy, and relax. It was kind of nice. I did play a few Single Table Satellites for Lamers. Lamers are chips you can use to register for any WSOP event you wish. I highly recommend playing these, as most of the time, deals are made, and its easy to grind a profit. I will be back out there this Wednesday on the 10th, and I will be staying for the rest of the series. Best of Luck to everyone, and hope to see you all at the ‘09 WSOP! Don’t forget the grrrreat UltimateBet WSOP party at the MGM Studio 54, June 29th. Be there or be square!
P0ker H0
Tags: Hollywood Dave, Mark Seif, MGM, Poker H0, Poker Poker Poker, Satellites, ub, Vegas, WSOP, WSOP Academy
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