Sunday, October 18, 2009 - Michaelbinger
Well it has been quite a few weeks. After a frustrating week or two of poker in London I flew from Amsterdam to Aruba on the 3rd. I knew immediately that I was in for a great week. I managed to convince my brother Nick to come out to Aruba for the first time so I had a partner in crime. Plus alot of good friends were going to be there. I really do have more and more fun every year in Aruba.
Day 1 Sun Oct 4: Nick and I rented a Catamaran sailboat (a Hobicat) and managed to capsize it only twice. It’s a bit of a pain to get them right side up in the middle of the ocean but well worth it for the fun and adventure. It was really a blast… we went sailing another 3 times during the week. We hung a few hours on the beach with some friends then headed back to the room to get ready for the opening party. Little did I know what an EPIC night we had in store. Things started off a bit tame (by which I mean a normal fun party), but about an hour or two into it people started getting rather drunk, and well… a massive epidemic of people getting thrown into the pool ensued. I must admit that myself, my brother Nick, and some other team UB pros were the main culprits behind this. We would spot someone in the crowd who we thought should be in the pool, and like savage hunters track them down and throw them in kicking and screaming (FYI they were fake screams… interesting fact: people love being thrown in pools! ). We were good though… we always gave our victim the opportunity to empty the pockets of cell phones and other stuff and give them to a friend before getting thrown in. Before long, it seemed like the entire party was in the pool. The award for toughest fighter goes to the newest UB team pro Joe Sebok… that kid is scrappy and strong… I think it took 4 of us to get him in the pool! But once he was in the pool, he came to see the wisdom of it all!
Day 2 Mon Oct 5: This was day 1A of the main event and we had the day off. A fun mostly lazy day on the beach interrupted only by going tubing. Four of us could go at a time on our own separate tubes and boat driver was on a mission to sling us around and knock us off. Quite exhilarating and fun. Dinner out in town at an awesome restaurant Madame Janette.
Day 3 Tues Oct 6: Time to play poker! We started with 15k in chips and as usual with tournaments run by Matt Savage the blind structure was very good. I finished the day with 41k I think, a bit above average. Off to bed early.
Day 4 Wed Oct 7: Nick and I woke up early to go for a swim in the ocean and then sailing before the noon day 2 restart. The winds were fairly strong and the skies ominous. We got pretty far from shore and decided that a fun way to practice sailing would be for one of us to jump out of the boat and have the other tack back to “rescue”. I was the first overboard and my brother decided to sail past me a few times just for fun before picking me up. Next it was Nick’s turn: he jumps overboard, and almost immediately the winds pick up. I am doing my best to control the small boat, which is going faster than ever. Before I even know what’s going on the front of the boat is plowing into the water and I am at 45 degrees… very close to flipping but I managed to lean back and counterbalance. I turn around and tack back towards Nick just as it starts pouring rain and lightning and thundering. It is getting a bit scary, but as an experienced seaman (this is my 2nd time sailing) I wasn’t fazed 
. I pick up Nick and we decide to head in… the only problem being that it is raining so hard we cannot see the shore. But a good sailor has an internal compass so we made it back safe and sound, in time to play some poker. Sadly the day didn’t go well for either of us. I built up to over 80k early on and was in strong position, but everything just fell apart and I busted in the evening… so I was stuck on a tropical island with tons of fun leisure/adventure activities and a bunch of cool people. Sigh.
Day 5 Thurs Oct 8: Horseback riding! Went with Nick, UB pro Liv Boeree, and Allie Prescott who sadly had to bail at the last minute do to illness. It was a blast, we got to gallup along the beach and mosey through the Aruban countryside. Great big group dinner.
Hung out in the pool for a while around midnight with a bunch of friends and UB pros. Went out to some clubs late night with Joe Reitman and ran into a bunch of great people. Walked home at 5am.
Day 6 Fri Oct 9: Another day of beach bumming and sailing. Good times. Then in the evening to Phil Hellmuth’s party in the penthouse suite. As usual, a great party. Lots of free flowing Dom Perignon, plus a performance by The Dan Band, who were awesome and funny. Oh yes and there was a rapping competition between Jeff Madsen and the Poker Rapper.
Day 7 Sat Oct 10: Lazy day shopping, getting lunch, then went out on the Waverunners. Had a blast once I figured out how to do 360’s. More beach bummery with the crew. Throwing around the nerf football and such. The closing party was that night, featuring another performance by The Dan Band, and another episode of debaucherous pool throwing and frolicking (see day 1).
Day 8 Sun Oct 11: Time to leave 
Until next year Aruba!
So now I’m back home in Vegas, playing some poker at the Bellagio and just catching up on life. Played the 10k HORSE event 2 days ago, which got only 19 players. Busted on day 2 yesterday. Probably playing the 10k PLO tomorrow… check me out on twitter for updates!
Best of Luck,
Michael Binger
Tags: Amsterdam, Aruba, Bellagio, Joe Reitman, Joe Sebok, Liv Boeree, London, Matt Savage, Michael Binger, Phil Hellmuth, Poker Poker Poker, Team UB, The Dan Band, Twitter, ub pros, Vegas
Comments (0)
Thursday, September 3, 2009 - Liv Boeree
Hey all, I’m back in the land of cool breezes and fish’n'chips now thank goodness. It’s so good to be home – I’ve come for a quick break from all forms of urbanisation to stay with the parents for good home cooked meals and bracing walks in the countryside. I love it here so much, they basically live on a farm surrounded by hills, woods and fields and more animals than you can imagine. Their most recent venture has been to get a few chickens for eggs and so on (in retrospect, what else would you have chickens for?). They told me they would be getting a couple at most. Somehow that “couple” equals TWELVE. They are awesome though, there are two that are so friendly they literally chase you across the field if you go in there, and you can pick them up for a feathery cuddle if you want.
![me-at-home[1]](http://blog.ultimatebet.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/me-at-home11.jpg "me-at-home[1]")
Anyway, enough of my parents’ animals. So last you heard I was in Macau where I was doing well in side events and had not done so well in the main event of the APT. Well the main event of the second event they had there, the APPT, went even worse. I had satellited my way in which is always nice, however it clearly wasn’t meant to be my day when I realised I couldn’t even make middle pair. Not even the filth I was dealt and folded pre could hit the board. When I then went to my happy place and played “fantasy poker”, making up hands in my head for giggles, not even THOSE hit. It was quite incredible. So obviously I had no choice but to make plays instead, but whenever I did they either a) had the nuts or b) didn’t understand how to fold. Oh dear.
After that disaster was over a few of us headed over to Hong Kong for a few days to take in the sights – the city is really quite spectacular. I so preferred it to Macau in everyway (Macau is often referred to as the armpit of Asia, although I think groin is more apt). No casinos, no horrible smells, no smoking (seriously, these people would smoke in a crowded elevator). Just friendly people, great food and better views!
Tags: APPT, APT, Countryside, Hong Kong, Liv Boeree, Macau
Comments (0)
Thursday, August 27, 2009 - Liv Boeree
So Macau’s been going rather well all in all! I’ve just got back from playing the 7-handed event at the APPT where I finished 5th for $35,600 Hong Kong dollars, which equals about $4500 which was rather nice. The day before that I played a super satellite for a seat to the Main event and I won that too, so even better. Then two days before that, I came second in the $300 6-max event at the APT and got about $3700 for that, so it’s been a nice payday so far!! Due to all this I’m feeling pretty confident going into the main event which I play tomorrow as I’m not only running well but actually playing some of the best poker I’ve played in a while. Between those two things I should be able to take down the whole thing I reckon…
Aside from poker, I’ve been doing the usual touristy things like shopping and beach going. The beach was gorgeous with the warmest seawater I’ve ever felt. It’s like a bath, no jokes. The clothing here is criminally cheap and I love it. However, in between every clothing shop there’s a foul smelling stand selling fouler smelling foodstuffs that are impossible to figure out. I think they are dried/pickled mussels but my understanding of sea food is that it should be kept on ice and eaten fresh, and certainly not left in the damp, crotch-hot heat that is Macau for a few days. I can see a prop bet coming on here…
Tags: APPT, APT, Liv Boeree, Macau, Poker Poker Poker
Comments (1)
Friday, August 14, 2009 - P0ker J0
How the heck are ya? Well I actually am doing my BLOG early this week. I’m not sure if it is a full moon or if I should just go out and buy a lottery ticket but I’m feeling almost (and I say almost) organized and ready to rumble.
Not too much is new to report – it is almost like the calm before the storm. And when I say storm I mean in the tropical sense referring to Aruba. Only 6 weeks away. We are knee deep in the planning and this 10th birthday event should prove to be fantastic. I have some fantastic news on the entertainment. I can’t quite yet let it out of the bag – but OMG – it will be awesome. Stay tuned next week for more!
So we have a couple of new Team UB members who I’m loving working with. Bryan Devonshire is now officially on the team and you will see him in Aruba. He has started blogging for us too – so look for his weekly blogs here on UB. Yet to be formally announced – but about to be blasted everywhere is Billy Kopp. If you followed the WSOP this year, then you know this name! Stay tuned to read his blogs here on UB. What a great team we have! I couldn’t be more proud
As you know Liv Boeree moved over to UB and she has been actively blogging about her last few weeks in the rock world. She is about to head to Macau to play some poker (and I heard rumours about a movie too!) That will be awesome!
Well I think that is all she wrote this week. I’ll be back next week with some fantastic news on many fronts.
Have a great week!
P0ker J0
Tags: -billy kopp, -Bryan Devonshire, Aruba, Liv Boeree, Macau, Poker Jo, ub, WSOP
Comments (0)
Thursday, August 13, 2009 - Liv Boeree
This week has been a pleasantly quiet one after the rock’n'roll shennanigans of the previous one, which has been great as it’s meant I have been able to catch up on the good things like poker, reading and seeing old friends. The last one was especially important as all the travelling I’ve been doing had been making keeping up with everyone back home really hard! Otherwise, I’ve been pretty busy playing the new Seven Deuce tables here on UB and planning for my impending trip to Macau for the Asian Poker Tour event which is next week. I’m SO excited!! The other thing that’s been taking up an unhealthy amount of time is trying to decide on a new phone since my old trusty one got broken in Vegas. After a barrage of everyone telling me to get a damn iphone, I decided to go with the sexy new HTC. Damn you iphoners!!! A really cool thing I found out recently is that I’m getting an endorsement from Schecter guitars, and awesome US based guitar company that make absolutely beautiful guitars. I’m pretty blown away by this as despite the fact that I’ve played on and off since I was seventeen, I’m obviously not in a proper band and am certainly not a famous guitarist!! I’m hopefully getting the first one sent to me sometime over the next few weeks so there will be a new baby to the collection. I’ll get some pictures up soon
Tags: Asian Poker Tour, Liv Boeree, Poker Poker Poker, poker tournaments, Rock N Roll, Schecter Guitars, ub, Vegas
Comments (0)
Saturday, August 8, 2009 - Liv Boeree
I’ve been back in the UK for about ten days now and haven’t had a chance to rest at all because last weekend was Sonisphere, a new rock and metal festival near London. It had my dream lineup of bands – Metallica, Alice in Chains, Paradise Lost and of course Anthrax, to name a few! If you don’t know by now, fellow UB pro Scott Ian is the guitarist and driving force behind Anthrax, so I was over the moon when I found out they were playing. Scott of course sorted us out with the best possible AAA passes enabling me to swan about all over the festival including the band areas where there was a plethora of free food, drink and even haircuts!
Anthrax played on the first day and absolutely blew everyone away with their performance. These guys are as hard and heavy as ever and it was a real treat to watch them play with their old singer John Bush. The rest of the weekend was of a similar ilk with more loud music and long hair than you imagine, finishing with standing on the side of the stage to watch Metallica. What more could a girl want?
The very next day the whole motley crew of bands, media et al bundled down to central London to attend the Kerrang awards (Kerrang is a famous music magazine in Europe). Scott was hosting the whole event which meant that he could invite a bunch of us to sit on his table along with his lovely lady Pearl (who played Aruba last year) which was amazing. All around were famous rock stars including The Prodigy, Skunk Anansie, Machine Head and Alice in Chains and things got pretty rowdy once the absurd amount of alcohol on each table started to be consumed. After the awards finished a group of 30 of us headed out to bar after bar, getting progressively louder until each bar moved us on. The night eventually ended around 4.30am with various members of the group getting lost or climbing into rickshaws in Soho and cycling off into the night screaming maniacally. Love it!!
- Kerrang Awards
- On stage!
Tags: alice in chains, Anthrax, Aruba, John Bush, Liv Boeree, London, Metallica, Paradise Lost, Scott Ian, ub
Comments (0)
Monday, August 3, 2009 - Liv Boeree
So you may have heard about a certain little boxing match that happened a few of weeks ago called “Rumble near the Rio”. This came about when Pokernews approached me with the proposal that I box their presenter, Melissa Castello. Now I have never boxed before in my life, but it has always been something that I’ve wanted to try, and as I never like to turn down a challenge, I readily accepted. It then occured to me that maybe I should do some research into Melissa and her background, as knowing me it’ll turn out she was once an MMA champion or the like. The research unveiled the fact that yes, she had fought before. Fought significantly. Apparently she’d been quite the scrapper a few years back and had been in bar fights with bottles and broken noses and god knows what else. However, by the time this had come to light the PR ball had gotten rolling and turned the fun boxing match into quite the monster with press conferences, huge blow up posters boasting our vital stats and official boxing licences! Whatever cold feet I may have tried to get were basically nowhere near enough to stop the relentless march of the match, so I resigned myself to probably getting beaten. Even more so when I heard that Melissa had been training every day with a personal boxing coach and I only managed to squeeze in three training sessions due to playing poker each day.
The day of the fight was awesome. Pokernews had set everything up really well and a surprisingly large crowd turned up to watch and cheer on each side. I’d heard rumours of betting but it took a little while until the news filtered back to me that I was apparently the favourite despite the fact she’d been training way more! I was in the blue corner and before I knew it we were touching gloves and the bell was ringing for the first round. It started really well for me, I was able to land some decent punches without her really making any contact on me at all. By the second round we were already exhausted, a minute and a half of trying to beat someone up when you’ve never done it before is exhausting! The second round went by and Melissa fought back really well and it was a close call, but the third round was a definite win for me again so I felt pretty confident when they took us into the middle and announced the winner . I even got a medal! The best bit however is the 100% undefeated boxing record I now have to my name… can’t argue with those stats. Ahem…
Liv
Tags: Boxing, Liv Boeree, melissa castello, MMA, PokerNews, Rumble Near the Rio
Comments (0)
Saturday, July 25, 2009 - P0ker J0
Ok so I know the song is Just Another Manic Monday – but I feel strongly that the day should have been changed to Friday – if only for this week. My day flew by and before I knew it, I was late with my blog. Bad bad P0ker J0!!
Well I just finished a new photo shoot with some of my pros so you will soon see some exciting new pictures on the site – showing their pearly whites! Phil – in typical Phil fashion – maintained his (what I like to call) the “point and grin” pose as well as the groovy “thumbs up and smile” pose. I am never ever bored when I’m dealing with Phil. He is truly one of my favourite people in the world (but just don’t tell HIM I said that – love ya Phil!
Did you happen to see Matt Graham play in the VIP tournament last Tuesday night at 8:00 PM EST? He almost took it down! The players really loved playing and chatting with him. This coming Tuesday look out for the whacky and crazy HollywoodDave to grace the tables with his presence – and when I ‘m talking about HD, there is ALWAYS presence!
World travellers that my pros are – many are headed to London to play the WSOPE and then jetting straight to Aruba for our 10th anniversary event. I think this will be the best year ever and I hope to see you all there! There is NOTHING more fun than Aruba for the Poker Classic. And yes – its true – I do often lose a pair of shoes or two, but this year I’m coming prepared with and extra stash! Thanks to P0ker H0 for letting THAT cat out of the back! Payback is a bitch H0
I am so excited to announce (press release coming out next week) that we have reconfirmed Micahel Binger as a Team UB member for a second year. He has been so busy playing in live events this past year – but look out for the coming year. He will be blogging, twittering, providing some strategy pieces (and he’s a smaaaaaaaart cookie!) as well as playing in a ton of tournaments on the site! He is currently in Guyana with Victor Ramdin doing some volunteer work in health clinics – identifying and treating children with heart problems.
Another exciting addition to the team (which will also be announced next week) is that migration of the lovely Liv Boeree from AP to Team UB. Liv has been with AP for a number of years, initially in a UK focused role; but as you know, she has taken the poker world by storm and proven herself to be an international force to be reckoned with. Her skills, talent and ability to just play damn good poker make her a perfect addition to the strong Team UB in existence today. We are thrilled to have her, and just like Mr. Binger – you’ll be seeing a LOT more of Liv here at her new home – UB!
I want to close this BLOG with a big shout out to my MVP Scott Ian!! After a gruelling tour in Europe with his band Anthrax, he was the first person to complete the P0ker J0 homework assignment I gave the team. He truly is my MVP – so thanks to you Scott!! Keep an eye out for Scott at both the UB tables, in Aruba and on tour. Busy busy guy – but still my MVP!! xoxoxoxo
Ok – I’m feeling all warm and fuzzy and that cannot last so I’m off to the gym to do some damage (and when I say damage – I mean I’m gonna hurt tomorrow!!)
Enjoy the weekend and see you back here next week!
P0ker J0
Tags: Anthrax, HollywoodDave, Liv Boeree, Matt Graham, Michael Binger, P0ker H0, Phil Hellmuth, Scott Ian, WSOPE
Comments (0)
Monday, July 6, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
And now the post I hoped I’d never have to write–Liv Boeree has been eliminated from the Main Event. She lost a big chunk of her stack earlier in the day when an opponent turned a wheel against her, and she was eliminated when she got all her money in with pocket Aces against a player who flopped an open-ended straight draw on the J-10-10 board. Her opponent made his straight on the turn and left Liv needing an Ace or a ten to stay alive. But the river was the 7c and that meant Liv’s Main Event was over much, much too soon. It’s probably best I didn’t take a picture of the…”person” who knocked her out, as there’s a good chance he would’ve been torn to shreds by the mob that would tracked him down like a dog. And that would be a bad thing. I think.
Liv cashed twice during the 2009 World Series and improved her amateur boxing record to 1-0 when she defeated PokerNews’ Melissa Castello in the “Rumble Nowhere Near the Rio”. Brains and brawn, Liv proved during the Series that she has them both.
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, Liv Boeree, world series of poker, WSOP
Comments (1)
Wednesday, July 1, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
Yes fight fans, today was the day we’ve all been waiting for, the much-ballyhoold Boeree-Castello smackdown at Barry’s Boxing Center. According to a few handicappers I spoke to Melissa was the favorite among the punters, though the late money seemed to favor Liv. As I took up a spot along the apron and waited for the combatants to make their way to the ring I tried to decide once and for all who I thought was gonna win. But I didn’t have a coin handy to flip, so I tabled the question and waited for the contest to start.
Both fighters entered the arena to the Rocky theme, which either showed both Liv and Melissa have a taste for the classics or that there was only one tape awailable. Liv entered the ring first and whatever doubts anyone might’ve had about her focus or determination were erased right then and there:
Melissa entered soon after and after the two pugilists put their headgear on and mouthpieces in PokerRoad’s Joe Stapleton introduced them to the crowd, with Melissa getting her usual rowdy reception:
And with the introductions and instructions out of the way, it was time to get it ON:
The two fighters received some training before the bout and it showed–while their pugilistic form wasn’t the match of Floyd Maywether, they weren’t flailing about either. Liv and Melissa threw straight jabs and circled each other around the ring and traded short, quick punches. According to the tape Liv has three inches and five pounds on Melissa, but I didn’t think that would factor much into the fight. But it did–it seemed like Liv got the best from most exchanges because she was able to hit with full force while Melissa’s punches were a bit beyond full extention.
If the first round was a bit of a feeling-out time, in the second it seemed that Liv established that she was a bit bigger, a bit faster, a bit stronger, and she took control of the fight. And you could see in both their eyes that this was indeed a fight–they were throwing punches with bad intentions. It’s just that most of the really telling blows were landed by Liv:
When the bell rang at the end of Round 3 it came as both a bit of a relief (no one got hurt!) and a bit of a disappointment (hey, I was enjoying that!). And when the three judges were polled and they unanimously chose Liv as the victor, it looked like she was a bit relieved as well:
And then the two fighters congratulated each other for a good show, and judging from the shouts and cheers coming from the very vocal crowed they enjoyed it too.
Liv now holds an official 1-0 amateur boxing record (today’s bout was sanctioned by the Nevada State Athletic Commission) while Melissa falls to 0-1. Just a bit more importantly, Liv won $1,000 for the Marie Curie Cancer Trust, while Melissa raised $500 for the Hemophilia Foundation of Southern California.
Now if we can just get Liv into the ring with Phil Hellmuth…I’m thinking a big pay-per-view audience. Big.
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, boeree castello fight, Liv Boeree, liv boeree fight, melissa castello, melissa castello fight, rumble nowhere near the rio, world series of poker, WSOP, wsop fight
Comments (2)
