2ND ANNUAL DREAM TEAM POKER TOURNEY
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
