Immediately after playing the NAPT Invitational, I was off to California for the Los Angeles Poker Classic main event. I had two options: stay in a hotel room at the Commerce or crash with my buddy Alec Torelli in Irvine, which is about 35 miles away.
Before you say that I should have stayed at the Commerce, you need to know a few things. Alec is a fantastic guy, and he lives in a place called the Village at the Spectrum. It’s essentially a huge resort with a five-story apartment building. There are five gyms, four swimming pools, and a hot tub. Alec drives a BMW M6 and he routinely gets it up to 110 miles per hour on the I-5. So that significantly shortens the commute. And the Commerce is well the Commerce… So, yeah, I opted to stay with Alec.
In terms of the tournament, nothing great happened. I busted out on day two and played a lot of hands, but none of them were all that interesting. From now on, if you want to know how I’m doing in a tournament, check me out on Twitter. It’s Andrew_Robl, and I’m trying to update during each break.
What you won’t read about on Twitter is what happened after this tournament. There was a charity bash at the Playboy Mansion, VictoryPoker had a cabana, and I wasn’t going to miss it. Good thing, too, as this is definitely the best party I’ve ever attended. For starters, the girl-to-guy ratio was at least 3-to-1. Body-painted Playboy models were all over the place, and we hadthe best table at the Mansion. Thanks, Mr. CEO Dan Fleyshman!
Our area was so raging that some of the FullTilt guys left their table to come over and party with us. Phil Laak was at our table and we played a new game called Patch Phil; it involves trying to sneak as many VictoryPoker patches on Phil as possible. He doesn’t want to join our site because he has his own, but by the end of the night he was promoting Victory without knowing it.
To get an idea of how wild things were, I’ll tell you a story that came to me from Alec. He and Keith Gipson (a great guy and another VictoryPoker pro) were waiting on line for one of the bathrooms. Three girls in lingerie tried cutting in front of them. Alec told them they had no shot, that they needed to get to the back of the line. One girl said that her friend would make out with him in exchange for a cut. Alec told her to forget about it. But then he thought of a better idea: If all three girls make out with each other, they can get in line. They did, and they did.
After the party, a lot of the VictoryPoker guys, who were still in the LAPC, went home to rest up. One advantage of getting knocked out early was that I had no compelling reason to sleep. So I joined Nima, executive producer of VictoryPoker.tv, and Craig Clements who was voted Prom King of Hollywood. We wound up at the Playboy Mansion after-party, inside a penthouse at the Roosevelt Hotel. Just one problem: We didn’t have passes with us, though we were invited to the party since we had a cabana at the Mansion.
When the bouncers told us that we couldn’t get in, we tried sneaking in a few different ways but never made it. Finally, I got the bright idea of joining a group of 14 girls coming off of the elevator. I situated myself in the middle of the pack and walked inside with them. Once there, I found the guy with our passes. Craig, Nima, and I had fun rubbing it into the bouncers as we sauntered past them, waving our invites.
Inside the party, I met a group of Sweden’s toughest online poker players. I knew them all by their screen names, but we had never had a chance to hang out before. They told me about the $15-million mansion they’re staying in for the next three months! Loads of drinking ensued. By the end of the night, I was in no condition to drive (or, truthfully, even to ride) back to Irvine. So I got myself a roomat the Roosevelt.
Next morning, I received a call from Nima, and he talked me into going out drinking with him. We spent the day barhopping with Craig and Hillary Scott, who had been voted Porn Star of the Year in 2009. That night I got my assistant to drive in from Irvine and pick me up. I had been MIA for a good couple days, but it was well deserved after all the poker I’d been playing.
At this moment, I am in Irvine, chilling with Alec. I plan on devoting the next week to working out, relaxing, and being healthy. I’ll take time out to play a charity tournament that VictoryPoker is sponsoring, in conjunction with the Academy Awards. There are supposed to be some big-name celebrities buying in. Check my Tweets for more details.
Late last month, I played the North American Poker Tour’s main event at the Venetian. The buy-in was $5,000 and the turnout was great. Best of all, 470 of the players qualified online. That makes the field particularly soft – and makes the tournament way better for us pros. Think about it: Guys who get in by winning $35 satellites are usually not as good as professional players who pay $5,000 per seat. I cashed in 113th place for $7,200. It was disappointing to get that far and not make a significant score, but, hey, winning some money is better than the alternative
Whatever the case, I had no time to lick my wounds. A day later, I was playing in the NAPT’s $25,000 invitational event. This tournament was a single-table shoot-out, which means that you had to win your table in order to advance; for each player your knocked out, you received a $5,000 bounty. The structure made the tournament feel like a short-handed cash game, which is what I am used to playing. So that aspect was really nice.
Then there was the toughness of the field. Remember what I said up top? About soft competitors? That was clearly not the case in this tournament. I made that point to a reporter from PokerNews.com, after I was asked to predict who would win each table.
Check out the excellent competition that I found myself up against: Sitting to my left was fellow VictoryPoker pro Lee Markholt. Next to him was John Hennigan, a top high-stakes cash specialist. To John’s left sat my old friend Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, one of the best players out there. Then there was a well-known online pro, AJKHoosier1, who’s a member of the Brunson 10. Brett Richey, yet another solid player, one with whom I got into a dumb, drunk fight a year ago (we made amends the day before the tournament), came next. And rounding things out was Daniel Negreanu. This was not an easy table. But there were seven VictoryPoker pros in the tournament, and I figured that at least one of us would advance.
Before the first card was even dealt, Phil Galfond got a bit of a bad beat. He was told that he couldn’t wear his logo for BluefirePoker.com – an excellent strategy site that Phil has an interest in. That was a bummer, but the rest of us tried to compensate by making sure to mention BluefirePoker whenever we were sure to get some camera time. Phil got such a big kick out it that he gave us all free memberships to the site.
We started the day at the feature table, which meant that we played with hole-card cams and were miked, which was really cool. I got into an interesting hand with Phil, which I’ll be writing about for coinflip, which I am going to start being a featured blogger for along with Lars/Ziggmund — so no tipping it here. Less interesting was when I called Bretty Richey’s all-in with pocket Queens and he flipped us fives. He hit a third 5, depriving me of a $5,000 bounty and his stack. The fact that we had been mortal enemies a week ago, well, that made his hitting a two-outer all the more dispiriting.
Daniel busted out right before the second break, and when we came back, all of a sudden, we were no longer the feature (TV) table. The remaining players found that to be pretty humorous. By the time I went broke, in fourth place, I was no longer laughing. I was looking back at a fairly expensive little adventure. I made no bounties, I was wrong about all of my table-winner picks, and none of my VictoryPoker brothers came close to the money. On the upside the invitational was fun, the structure was excellent, I’m freerolling on BluefirePoker, and ESPN is airing the tournament.
Vegas is great for a lot of things, but when it comes to being romantic, it’s tough to beat the wine country in Northern California. This past Valentine’s Day, after having spent months working like crazy on the launch of VictoryPoker.net, a couple friends and I decided to get out of town and head up to Napa Valley. Antonio Esfandiari, his trainer All American Dave, and I decided to treat our girls to a holiday of tasty food, good wine, and gorgeous scenery.
One obstacle was the time available. We’re so busy with VictoryPoker that we really couldn’t be away for long. The original plan was to spend just one night in Napa. Here’s where it pays to have good friends. A buddy of Antonio’s offered to loan us his private jet at cost. That cut down on the hassle and the hours we’d burn in airports. So we took him up on it and piled in– figuratively speaking, of course, as the plane was, after all, a G4 — and headed straight to Napa. The whole thing was exciting for me, but I really loved that the girls had no idea where we were going. It felt really good for us to surprise them with something special – which included several champagne toasts on the way.
We checked into the Meadowood, a beautiful but rustic hotel. It’s composed of private cabins situated on a huge estate. Staying there, you really get a chance to appreciate the natural beauty of this area. It served as an awe-inspiring spot from which to launch our sprint through wine country, which, of course, would be built around visiting private estates. Because nobody wanted to be the designated driver, we cruised the narrow roads in the back of a limo loaded with champagne.
One of the major highlights was Allora Vineyards. This is a winery that produces amazing cabernet sauvignons and is a place that Cole South, Brian Townsend, and other poker players have visited. I can see why they went there. We had a great tasting and really enjoyed the wine. So as not to be shown up by my cab loving Internet legends, I bought a case of Allora’s finest and will be honored to share it with friends over the next month or so.
After that we went to Martin Estates, where I had the chance to meet its owner, Greg Martin. He’s a really cool, 70-year-old guy who looks like Hugh Hefner and originally made his money by dealing guns. Fittingly, his house is filled with taxidermy and antique weapons. We all got drunk together and Martin hit on my girl nonstop – which I took as a total compliment.
We were hoping to eat dinner at the French Laundry, which is known to be the greatest restaurant in Northern California (if not in the whole United States), but the place was packed and we couldn’t get a reservation. What can I say? I guess we’re not baller enough. We wound up at Reed’s, which was a really terrific and modern spot with an excellent wine list. One of the funny things that happened on the trip was a bet that had been made between Antonio and Dave. Every time Antonio said Swanatorrrrr, Dave had to respond by saying Swanerskiiiii. That definitely turned some heads in the restaurant and at the vineyards.
Napa was so much fun that we wound up staying for an extra night, much to the chagrin of Victory’s CEO. Some of us are just not made to do work! We spent our second day bike riding through wine country and had an amazing dinner that night. It was a great trip, thanks to being with good friends in a wonderful part of the country. We flew back to Vegas on the jet, enjoyed some more champagne in the air, and landed with time to prepare for the North American Poker Tour’s main event at the Venetian.
I finished in 113th place for $7,320. It was disappointing, but I played well and know that I’m going to crush a tournament one of these days. Now I’m looking forward to the really big one, the $25,000 invitational, which starts today! VictoryPoker pros have 5 of the 49 seats, and I’m wagering that one of us will win it. I drew the same starting table as Daniel Negreanu. My friends Brian Rast and Sorel Mizzi made a big bet with Daniel — $160,000 all told — that i will take it down over him. I’m hoping to win some money for me and for my friends
