Saturday, October 17, 2009 - Liv Boeree
Well where can I start? I’m sat in Amsterdam airport after a somewhat hellish, screaming child filled ten hour flight back from a certain beautiful little island. The past ten days has been my personal heaven – the Ultimatebet Aruba Classic. After a riotous few days in Amsterdam with various UB pros we arrived in the balmy tropics and got straight to the most important part – locating the rest of the team and hitting the bar.
The first full day was spent on the beach and warming up my tubing skills for the inevitable bouts of last longer bets that were to bound to occur throughout the week. A number of us (including team members Matt Graham, Roothlus, Tiffany and Billy) rented a boat and we went for a very beery cruise involving diving competitions and trying to swim back to the boat against a very strong ocean current.
That night was the opening party including all the free booze and food UB could throw at the guests, and which inevitably ended up in everyone getting thrown in the pool. Lacey Jones and I had a chicken fight aboard Matt Vengrin and Matt Graham (we won, of course), and Phil managed to get through about $10,000 getting ladies to jump in the pool naked.
Lacey and I also got $1000 for one lucky guy who was the first one to jump in naked also… gotta keep the balance between the sexes!
Monday was relatively quiet as it was day 1A, and half of the pros, myself included, had been scheduled for a new UB photoshoot which I can’t wait to see the results of. Tuesday was day 1B, which was my first day of play. I had the Great Poker Ho on my table, who was lauding it up the way only Ho can, rallying the table and generally creating mayhem with some huge pots. Sadly things didn’t go Ho’s way once Robbie Cunningham came to the table and started crushing it utterly. I swear to God he had Jacks or better every other hand for two hours, and played them tricky enough too, knocking Ho out in the process. An interesting (and kinda costly hand) for me was when I had around starting stack and the blinds were 100 200. Robbie makes it 525 in the hijack, I have queens and make it 1600 in the cutoff. However, the supertight girl to my left who hadn’t played many hands at all goes to call his initial raise before I even get chance to act. When I say wait a minute, and do my threebet she instacalls behind anyway. The SB, who has been pretty LAG and was “internetting it up” as they like to say now does a really weird min raise making it 2700. Robbie now says “what the hell do I do?” and flats. I now ask the same question, and chose to call behind too (in hindsight should’ve jammed here, I mean, Laggy guy could have anything, Robbie or the girl, if they have me beat here are reraising) and the girl flats. The board comes A j 10 and Robbie bets out 2/3, I muck, the girl mucks and the SB stuffs it in with… A-10. What does the Cunningham have? Jacks of course.
My day went pretty much downhill from there and I got short after whiffing AK three times, and then found 10s vs QQs which sent me packing to the beach for more fun and frolics that I’ll document next week… tough life!
Tags: Adam "Roothlus" Levy, Amsterdam, Aruba, aruba classic, Billy Koop, Lacey Jones, Matt Graham, matt vengrin, P0ker H0, Phil Hellmuth, Poker Poker Poker, Robbie Cunningham, Tiffany "Tiffany M" Michelle, ub, Ultimate Bet
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Sunday, May 31, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
So last night I wrote a post about how poker players have to grind and grit it out if they want the glory. How that blue-collar, lunch-pail work ethic is what really separates the champs from the chumps. So what did I do after posting that paean to the unglamorous side of poker? That’s right–I went to a wild party at a glizty Vegas nightclub!
In my defense, as I staggered from the Amazon Room last night I had no intention of going out. But when someone asks if you’d like a VIP pass to the official World Series of Poker launch party, the proper way to answer that question is, “Yes please!”. So I lugged my 30 pounds of gear up to ND’s Fuego in the Rio and fell in with a gaggle of poker media types at the bar. Technically this was a work event (and will be described as such when I write my bar tab off on my taxes) but my guilty conscience required that I perform some minor labor to justify my presence. The giant LED displays ringing the club were projecting the WSOP logo along with some wild swirly lights and I said, hey, if I’m gonna lug my camera around, I might as well use it:
They were also scrolling the names of every WSOP World Champion along the walls, waited a bit before shooting this pic:
I hope you’ll forgive the sketchy quality of these photos, it was dark in there (though the darkness was periodically erased by pulsating strobe lights) and I didn’t have my flash with me. Plus it can be hard to take tack-sharp photos when you’ve got a beer in one hand. Though I did put my beer down and put the camera to my eye when the singer and dancers took to the floor:
And…
That’s a beautiful, beautiful…dress. Wow. What stitchwork.
A bit later Jeffrey Pollack took to the stage to officially welcome everyone to the 2009 World Series of Poker, and also to introduce a new rap video starring Lacey Jones (who was the hostess of the party). After the video Lacey took the stage and, thank God, I got one salvageable shot of her speaking to the captivated crowd:
It was about that time that I learned via Twitter than Annie Duke had been knocked out of the $1,500 Omaha/8 event in 30th place. She tagged her tweet “#iamtheworst”, no doubt her frustration was at its peak after coming up short after such a deep run. And that’s when I decided to call it a night and head for home. The hour wasn’t too late, but I knew tomorrow (today) would be a busy day. The final table of the $40,000 Anniversary No-Limit tournament, the start of the Champions Invitational, Day 1b of the $1,000 Stimulus event, and the finale of the $1,500 Omaha/8 tournament. Plus whatever weirdness happens to go down at the Rio on this last Sunday in May. It’s gonna be a long day–back to the grind.
Tags: Annie Duke, annie duke omaha/8, jeffrey pollack, jeffrey pollack wsop launch party, Lacey Jones, lacey jones wsop launch party, world series of poker launch party, wsop launch party
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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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Tuesday, March 24, 2009 - Tiffany M
After some fabulous downtime after the holidays and New Year, 2009 is kickin’ my butt and keepin’ me busy. On the agenda for the month of March; Reno, San Jose and Vegas… yikes!
A few weeks ago I found myself stranded in the middle of Reno but I was in good company and it was for a great cause. Lacey Jones, Maria Ho and I along with several other pros attended Jen Harman’s Celebrity Charity tournament for the National Kidney Foundation. They put on a great fundraiser, had an excellent turn-out and the unique team tournament format brought some fun camaraderie to the event. Besides raising over 100k for the National Kidney Foundation the highlight of my trip was getting a straight flush while splashin’ around in a $1/$2 NL game with the girls. At the Grand Sierra they have jackpot hands and even though the pot I won was only around $20 bucks I received a $600 bonus!, Woo Hoo! That was super fun.
From Reno, Maria and I headed to San Jose for the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star tournament. I’d never played cards in the Bay area and due to gaming laws it was a very different experience than what I’m used to in Vegas. Their card room is only allowed two No-Limit tournaments a year which they reserve for the Shooting Star $10k Main Event and the $2k preliminary tournament. That meant that the super satellites were a Spread Limit format which is somewhat like pot limit but at any given point you can only bet 40x the big blind. Maria and I were both eliminated pretty quickly from the first super satellite we played which began at 9:30 in the morning… YIKES. Poker players don’t do mornings! You know how poker goes, the set that I flopped was no good when playing against someone who chases to the river to hit their gut shot… ugg.
The following day I felt really optimistic about the $2k NL event. I was a little under the weather and started coming down with a cold in Reno from the late nights and smokey casino atmosphere but I remembered that when I played the WSOP Main Event I was really sick at the beginning of that tournament as well as when I cashed at the WPT Borgata Poker Open so maybe having a little cold helped me pace myself and be patient.
A few hours into the beginning of the $2k tourney I slowly began losing chips and pots and wasn’t able to capitalize on the ridiculous play and players at my table. I’ve never squeezed 9-2 more in my entire tournament life than I did at that one table. At one point Maria Ho got moved to my table, directly on my right. Of course it’s always fun to have a friend to chat and socialize with but you never want to have to play with one of your best friends.
We were both down to about 2500 when the blinds were 100-200 with a 25 ante. I preach about it all the time but from my past poker tournament experience I’ve learned to keep my optimism even when I’m sitting at ten big blinds. I looked at Maria and optimistically told her that I was going to turn my 2500 into 27,000 within the next two levels… and that’s exactly what I did. Unfortunately Maria wasn’t around to see it since she was eliminated shortly after. I was able to pick up a pot (blinds + antes + a raise), then immediately after I doubled up with aces and just like that I was sitting on 15k. I patiently sat on that stack for awhile and yet again watched it dwindle away when the 9-2 started showing itself every few hands or so. Eventually I made a move in an attempt to pick up chips and walked into someone with a big hand. It’s really tough to be patient while losing pot after pot and watching your chips disappear. To be honest I didn’t need to make the move I did but it’s so tempting to make an aggressive play when you get stars in your eyes over a big pot. There are definitely moments when it’s appropriate and sometimes you have to take a shot and gable to gain chips however in hindsight I wish I had stuck with the patient way I HAD been playing - waiting for good hands and committing chips when I had the best of it or at least shoving when I was ahead. More and more I’m realizing the value in being a solid and patient player however boring it may be, especially with all the poker maniacs out there who are bound to make a donk play and ship you all their chips in the process.
Alright enough poker talk. I’m home in LA and have been taking meetings with some networks who are really serious and excited about doing a reality show, a freaky yet fun thought. This week I’m off to Vegas for the Dream Team poker tournament where Lacey, Maria and I plan on CRUSHING the competition, ha ha. I’ll keep you posted.
Tags: Bay 101, Dream Team, Lacey Jones, Maria Ho, Shooting Star, WPT
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