††††Two weekends ago, I was dead set on having a productive weekend, I was finally† going to buckle down and put my nose to the grindstone and put in some hours on the poker table, and finish up the long painful process of finishing my taxes.† But then I was bombarded by text messages by my two new loves who have surpassed even poker, Antonio and Amalie.† They promised me that if I came to the IVY Hotel, a five star hotel complete with a nightclub where every one of your hedonistic fantasies can be indulged, I would remember it for the rest of my life.† SO what could I do?† I called my assistant and had her book me a ticket and hopped on a one-way flight.†
††† Upon landing I planned on meeting up with Tony Licari, Antonioís number one friend.† Antonio hangs out with so many fascinating people that I knew his number one friend which Tony, would be an unforgettable character.† Immediately after meeting him, he punished his travel companion Alex in a $100 bet on whether some uniformed security guards were actually cops.† He told Alex that the patches on their sleeve said ìharbor policeî but Alex refused to believe him and put his money where his mouth was.† Alex then chased after them and asked them if they were police to which they responded that indeed they were.† I was happy to have found a prop betting fish for the weekend.† Holla!
††† Upon arrival at the IVY, I scrambled to my room to complete a blog post, otherwise I would be punished $150; $100 to Alec who I have a weekly blog bet with, and $50 to you my blog readers.† But on my way to my room I passed many gorgeous women, and my resolve slowly faded.† While in the shower,† I decided ìfuck it, I am going to take my punishment and go party my ass off.î† So I headed up to Antonioís baller suite and proceeded to do shots with my childhood hero, Jonathon ëFatalityí Wendel, Tony, Alex, Amalie, Jonathonís ex-publicist Courtney and an array of Antonioís top 25 friends.
††† Somehow, in the midst of drinking profusely, stories of anal sex escapades came up.† After one of the stories I commented, ìWow that sounds likes a Tucker Max story (famous blogger and author of ëI hope they serve beer in Hell).î
To which Courtney snapped, ìWhat about Tucker?î
Apparently Courtney had recently broken up with Tucker Max (who blogs about hilarious, and what some would say are very disgusting things) usually while he is close to black out drunk.† This made the situation hilariously awkward and I wandered off to the bathroom laughing.†† I made a mental note to call my best friend from high school, Alex Vaszily to tell him about this hilarious situation as we were both avid fans of both Tucker Max and ëFatalityí back in the day.
††† After we all had a few drinks, or a few dozen, we headed to the rooftop bar to start partying.† Now this was not just any rooftop bar, it featured a spectacular bar, a gorgeous swimming pool, tables, bungalows, and to top it all off it was packed to the brim full of gorgeous scantily clad women.† Yet it did not have the feel of a pretentious club as everyone was gathered near the bar shooting shots and mingling.† It was so pure.
††† Some of Antonioís friends are quite the masters of seduction, but as for myself I just bust out my goofy white boy dance moves and the women come flocking?†
††† The second night, we again headed to the rooftop bar, this time accompanied by the legend himself, Alec Torelli. Upon his recent trip to New Zealand he met and bonded with a lovely intelligent Swedish girl during a 4 hour long bus ride of which he exchanged emails thinking he would never see her again.† But over the modern internet wonders such as skype and aim, Alec was suprisingly able to charm her into flying into California to stay with him in his giant California king bed.†
††† Anyway, seeing how sexy Lina and Alec looked I decided to find a gal for myself.† Amalie who is amazing at picking up girls became my wing woman.† We eventually found some girls and decided we wanted to get them drunk as fast as possible.† To accomplish this task we ordered countless blowjob and gummi bear shots to get all the females drunk.† My new female companion, Mr. Torelli , Lina, 12 time video game world champion Jonathon Wendel (newly nicknamed ëgameboyí) then headed to the dance floor to let loose.†
††† I was on my ëAí game and classily performed the shopping cart, the sprinkler, not to mention countless disco moves before I decided to party boy my female companion. Gameboy would not be outdone, to which he responded with moves he had honed with hundreds of hours from dance dance revolution.† Eventually ìJump Aroundî by House of Pain blared over the speaker system and the 6 of us started jumping around while flailing our hands in the air in pure ecstasy.† The other 40 people on the dance floor didnít know what to make of this and eventually all stopped dancing and just stared in amused bewilderment.† I tried to grab some scallies to join in the dancing, but they were to intimidated by my sweet moves to join in.†† The bar soon closed and 20 of us drunkenly headed back to Antonioís room to continue the party.† However I was not done dancing and decided to serve gameboyÖ if you can just imagine.
††† Although, around a year ago I did take beginner ballet classes with one of my best friends in an effort to learn how to dance.† The class was full of 10 year old girls who all adored us.† At the end of one class one of the girls came up to me and told me you have ëWBRSí.† I innocently asked her what does ëWBRSí stood for to which she responded ëwhite boy rhythm syndromeí which was accompanied by a chorus of 10 year old girly giggles.† Letís just say ballet class was a humbling experience that showed no improvement in my dancing abilities.† I have since given up and embraced my goofy white boy dance moves.
I planned on leaving the next day but Antonio convinced me to stay another night.† So I lounged about reading, playing chess with Brian Rast, and watching Fatality own some noobs in Quake 3.† In the evening Rast, Antonio, Amalie and myself were all joined by Danny, owner of Platinum Collections making him the youngest CEO of a publicly traded company (Whoís your Daddy energy drink) and a gorgeous hostess from the Ivy, who all went to dinner at Nobu.† We enjoyed some fine Sake, played Lodden Thinks and definitely enjoyed each otherís company.† Afterwards, Danny gave us a private tour of his store, (which is truly unbelievable if you are looking for high end merchandise in San Diego be sure to stop by).†† I asked him countless questions about his business career as I find successful self-made people to be both interesting and inspiring.† Despite all of his success Danny remains a very humble and down to earth individual, and passionately answered all of my questions.† It seems that anyone who truly excels in their profession is always passionate about it.†
This has probably been one of my more boring blogs recently, but Iím currently in Hawaii Kauai, with a gorgeous woman and I am departing on a two day hiking/camping trip tomorrow and simply canít put anymore time into this blog.† Its 22 miles up a mountain round-trip (called the Kalolou Trail) and I think my female companion is 50/50 on whether she will survive. Weíll see!
For the past three weeks I have been on a prolonged vacation from poker and the results have been stunning.† I feel that I have come alive.† I feel the daily highs and lows of gambling numb your emotions and with the absence of gambling my emotions are slowly returning.
For the past few months, hell almost a year now, I have found it harder and harder to focus on poker.† The additional money I made was no longer improving my lifestyle, as I was now an ëexpertí player the game was no longer interesting as I was learning and had to think about the game less and less.† But to fill the void that this left I played higher and higher to get the same ëhighí or to ëget in the zoneí, and after playing in these games Iíve been left to deal with gut-clenching variance.† I had found myself more stressed out, less fulfilled and simply less alive.† And I achieved almost zero monetary game (although in these games that could change in one session).
Iíve recently been spending more time with my friend, Antonito Esfandiari.† Antonio is one of the most social, fascinating and just plain awesome people I have ever met and he surrounds himself with interesting, intelligent and passionate induvails from all walks of life.† Just being around these people I find myself simulated and have a new lust for life.† Iíve conversed with people ranging from 27 a year old CEO (who still manages to be a hell of a poker player), to the best video game player in the entire world; to down to earth hippie-girls raised in the woods in Alaska. I find myself simulated and stretched in so many ways.†
This enjoyment of meeting new people and hearing their stories is what has made me play more and more high-stakes live poker (which is stocked full of interesting people) and less †and less online (which is more lucrative); since it is an isolating experience.† Iíve met and befriended part time comedian and multimillionaire record mogul Alan Meltzer, gotten to know street performer turned Billionaire Guy Liberte, and talk real estate with real estate legends Rock Clotier and Bob Safai.† All of these people are fascinating, inspiring and make me truly aware of what humans can achieve.†
Poker has given me some much.† It has given me the economic power to meet these people, the flexabaitly to travel the world or read and study whatever is on my mind at any given time and achieve the finical security to not have to work a ëjobí to support myself.† But it no longer simulates like I used to I rarely find joy and happiness in just playing like I did for so many years.
For me Itís become harder and harder to focus on poker when they are so many new things to learn and new experiences to be had in the world.† With the addictive nature of gambling and the stress and frustration caused by variance Iíve often found it hard to achieve balance in my life. ††So for now I might just take more time off for poker. †
I donít plan on giving up poker.† Iím so good at it, and itís unlikely that I will ever make the money that I can make playing it.† Plus, I enjoy the extravagant lifestyle poker has afforded me and donít know if Iím ever going to be able to give it up.† But Iím enjoying this prolonged break, I think I might just extend it, expand my mind, stretch my limits and maybe just maybe fall in loveÖ
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Also I didnít post a blog last week, so I will have to send someone $50 in addition to another $100 to Alec Torelli who I have a bet with for the next three months where we both have to blog once a week.† Iím not exactly sure who Iím suppose to send it to, so Iíll put my assistant on it and ship it out shortly.
This is the story of how my good friend Luke Kim earned the nickname Redline Luke this past week.†
Very early Tuesday morning †Alec Torelli, Luke Kim, Antonio Esfandiarai and†myself ended up back at Antonitoís condo after consuming a few cocktails.† After some bullshiting, storytelling etc. I ended up deciding to drive back to Sky to grab some shut-eye.† Luke Kim also lives in Sky and was going to ride home with me, but Antonito offered him $30 to stay and hang out for the next twelve hours.† Antonito is the most social human being I know and absolutely hates being alone.† Luke being the nit he is, instantly accepted.
Anyway, the next day after I rolled out, and grinded through my early morning workout with my personal trainer Dave Vaughn, I gave Luke a call to hang out.† He picked up the phone and†said, ìIím too sick to talk.† Call you laterî and immediately hung up.† †I then called Antonio and he relayed to†me the following story.
Background information: Alec, Antonito †and I had been shopping at Fashion show mall throughout the day and ended up at GNC where Alec and I advised Antonito on what products to buy as he had recently become quite the gym rat (He has workout prop-bets with multiple peopleÖ if he doesnít work out 4 times a week it cost him 3k per day missedÖ Ouch!).† Anyways, at GNC he picked up Redline extreme liquid concentrate (http://www.vitacart.com/redline-240ml-vpx.html), which a tiny sip of can turn a sleepy and lazy person into a frenzied workout machine.
In his drunk state, Antonito proposed to Luke (the most busto among us) that he would give him $100 to consume a giant spoonful of redline.† I mean this spoon was giant at least five times the size of a normal spoon.† Anyway, sober Luke, an ivy league graduate, is the most rational induvial I know, but in his drunken state he somehow decided he couldnít pass up the $100.† Soon after consuming it he started shaking and ended up in the bathroom. He immediately started trembling and before long was puking uncontrolably in the bathroom.† During this time frame Luke said he was having deranged thoughts and all he could he could think about it was murdering Antonito with various items throughout the kitchen for putting him in such a horrible condition.† Even worse, Luke was trapped at Antonitoís for the next twelve hours and †couldnít leave to go home, to his girls or to the hospital without paying the ungodly fee of $60!†
Eventually the elapsed twelve hours passed and Luke headed back to Sky via taxi.† He made it all the way to fashion show mall before he tossed the cab driver a $20 and rushed out of the cab to puke.† He then proceeded to Niemen Marcus where he passed out on the couch.† Now keep in mind that he hadnít slept in 24 hours, changed his cloths from the night before and had been puking his guts out for the past 12 hours.† This must have been quite the site to see for the high end clientele of Neiman Marcus. ††††
The next day Antonito threw a dinner party, which as always was full of beautiful women (many of whom I had met clubbing throughout the week).† Luke Kim, decided to make an appearance since he was still too ëhighí to sleep and wandered through the party pale, with an unzipped docle hoodie with no shirt underneath talking to all the females present somewhat incoherently. Luke normally weighs 130lbs normally but after 24hrs of not consuming any fluids he was down to 120lbs and looked like a concentration camp victim.† Granted, a concertation camp victim in an $800 hoodie.† Anyways, we have been calling luke Redline Luke ever since and it seems like the name is going to stick.†
Also I noticed my last blog post was late so I just sent $50 to CHAWKS731 on full tilt the first person to post on here that I missed the blog.† Itís so painful to send out this money.† Iím not going to let it happen again.† Iím even posting this blog in an unedited format to spare myself the pain.† Just to be clear the deadline is midnight at Friday PST and continues for the next two weeks.
