Last night, I went to the NBC Heads-Up Championship drawing party with my friends Alec Torelli and Luke Kim.† When we were in LA for the LAPC commerce event, Alec ran around enthusiastically telling everyone in the immediate vicinity that he got into the NBC Heads-up Championship immediately after reading the email form.† Later in a more calm mood, he †read the whole email and realized that he was only invited to the pre-party, not the actual tournament.† I found this quite humorous as he had to explain this to several people who were at the party who he had informed that he was invited.† I love seeing Alec in pain.†
Immediately upon getting there I saw the legendary Finnish player Ziigmund who is known to enjoy a drink or two.† So I instantly walked up to him and insisted that him and his friend yasper take tequila shots with me.† He resisted at first but I eventually goaded him into doing a shot with me J.
Another amusing anecdote was meeting Phil Ivey.† He is arguably the most famous poker player, but I blatantly asked him, ìSo, whatís your name?î† Ivey is a great hand-reader, so he could tell that I was joking and gave a wry smile.
I also got involved in pure gambling with Erick Lindgren, Alec, and Luke.† Curiously, there were 127 dice strewn around Pure Nightclub, so we decided that the highest roll would scoop.† I broke about even shooting dice with E-Dog, Alec and Luke. with wagers ranging from $400 to $1000.
Off to a poker game.† More soon.† Didnít want to be boned for $50.
Being recently single I headed to LA on Valentineís Day, February 14th, to spend the day (and the week) with my †first and true love, poker.
Some people may think that Los Angeles is the only other place in the country that compares to the glitz and glamour of Las Vegas. Well those people have not been to a small area of L.A. called Commerce, California. I would have to say it is not exactly the most enchanting place on earth; itís more of an industrial townÖ not like the sparkling neon lights and abundance of celebrity sightings that I am used to. You see living in Las Vegas, maybe I just have become accustomed to the poker rooms being filled with well dressed individuals and men in pricey business suits. Nestled in the heart of Commerce is the Commerce Casino, a place where the air can be so stuffy that you must take several steps away from the Casino just to get away from the wall of chain smokers standing right outside the doors.
I traveled to this fabulous land with a good friend of mine, Brian Rast, who is also known as screen name TSARRAST, to the online poker world. He has had such an amazing month playing online in 500/1,000 RA games and is up over the $2 million mark in February according to HighStakesDB.com, so letís just say he was feeling pretty good about things despite our surroundings.
The 10 days spent in Commerce were consumed with poker, poker andÖ more poker. We played two tournaments, the $10,000 Heads Up Event and the $10,000 Main Event. During the Heads Up Event, I made a lot of side bets, and hoped that my friend Alec and I would cash deeper in the money than any other teams. I bet $5,000 against Bryn Kenny and his stake Ryan Young, and if that wasnít enough I bet another $3,000 against Sorel Mizzi and his partner A-mac. Okay so I just needed a little bit more action so I bet against Aaron Bean in a $1,000 player draft. We each took turn picking players, and whosever team ended up cashing for the most money wins! I chose players Issac Haxton, Alec Torelli and friend Brian Rast. Bean chose Scott Seaver, David Benyamine and A-mac. Well I ended up busting out in the 3rd round, which was very disappointing since I had made all those extra side bets, making it seem like it was going to end up being a very expensive tournament. Bryn Kenny and Ryan Young both made early exits in the tournament so I ended up free-rolling the bet, meaning I would win if Alec cashed, things were looking up for me! Alec started off 6 and 1 but lost his 8th match and ended up finishing just outside the money making my bets with Bryn and Ryan a wash. A-mac ended up cashing, so I lost both bets with Aaron Bean and Sorel Mizzi, so afterall it did end up being a very expensive tournament. Luckily, I was fortunate enough to get a seat in an action packed 4100 HA game so happily I was able to recover my losses very quickly.
While in lovely Commerce I spent a lot of my time with television stars Antonio Esphondion and Phil Lakk, who both have become very good friends of mine recently. Phil Lakk has to be the most entertaining person I have ever met in my life, which he took note ofÖ literally. He just happened to have a voice recorder with him, which is a perfect example of his eccentric personality; I mean who walks around with a voice recorder in their pocket? He said that anytime he was feeling a little blue he was going to replay the recording of me telling him he was the most entertaining person in the world; he must have been feeling down because he did exactly that, playing it over and over again while walking around the poker room.
One night after dinner Antonio and Phil invited Brian and I to the set of Love Line which they were co-hosting, which has to be one of the most hilarious and memorable times of my life. The show was also co-hosted by VH-1 Reality Star Striker. One thing that Dr. Drew found hysterical was that Antonioís solution to every possible question was ìanal sexî. Antonio and Phil kept betting on what the next questions would be, then during the intermissions of the show we all played a game called ìLodden Thinksî, named after online poker legend Johnny Lodden. The object of the game is someone is Lodden, in this case it was Dr. Drew, who got asked a series of silly questions, for example ìhow many kangaroos do you think are in Austrailia?î then the other players go back and forth, Chinese auction style to come up with the answer. Dr. Drew is a very smart and interesting human being, it was fun to sit there and kind of pick his brain. One of the questions was ìhow many partners has the average American male had?î Dr. Drewís answer was 6 partners, while Brian, Antonio and I all said 8 and under. Phil Lakk said 8 and over, so it was nice to collect some Phil money.
Poker went ok on the trip.† I did alright live, but had some big losses at 500/1000 HA online (where I only had 25%).† Overall on the trip I maybe made $30,000 playing poker which would have been nice except I lost over $100,000 to millionaire real-estate mogul and certified badass Bob Safi playing props.† Heíd pick two cards such as AK and bet $100 on them.† Then if the flop came AKK, KKA, AAA or KKK Iíd have to pay him $36,000 (the true odds are 394:1), otherwise Iíd win $100.† I know this sounds crazy, Iím willing to lose $36,000 to win a mere $100, but as a professional gambler how could I pass up the 6% juice!† Sometimes Bob would play up to 18 different props at the same time.† This got terrifying for me since, for example if he had bet 100 each on AK, AQ, AJ, AT, A9 and the flop came AAA that would be included in 5 payouts!† So Iíd have to pay him 36,000 * 5 = 180,000!† Thankfully, this never happened but he did mange to hit the normal props on me left and right..† †
I also recently hired a new assistant, Lindsey who is going to help me to post these blogs regularly.† We are going to do it at least once a week, so†a new blog should be up every Friday.† If I donít post at least one blog a week for the next month Iíll send $50 to the first person to post in comments and notice on Full Tilt Poker.
Watching Poker on TV is vastly different from watching any other sport.†† When you see Lebron James beat a double team, take off from the free throw line and throw down an earth rattlingly slam-dunk you know you have seen a great play, simply by the fact your breath was taken away.† Furthermore, youíd know if Lebron ever played second-tier players such as his backups he would make short work of them.† And if Lebron ever played a 40-year-old amateur well that would be a sight to watch.
In poker great plays are much more subtle.† Deciding to raise (as a bluff) with 2nd pair on the river instead of calling or folding, just calling the river with bottom full house instead of raising when you sense strength, or mucking pocket 8s under the gun because you know the player behind you is going to raise.† All these ëgreatí plays that professional poker players might make would often miss slip under the radar of the viewing audience, the announcers and even some professional poker players themselves.† The fact that poker is still so exciting to watch regardless, due to the drama, the tension and the amount of money changing hands speaks volumes about the game.†† But as a professional I find it somewhat ironic that the target audience does not understand so much of the game.† Most football fans could have a somewhat accurate debate about who the best NFL quarterback is, but I donít think most poker fans could have the same debate about who the best poker player in the world is.† Again there are many reasons for this, such as the complexity of the game, the luck factor, and the inability of the TV medium to capture everything that is happening at the table.
Many high-stakes cash game players are frustrated, amused and jealous over the amount of media attention and respects ëprofessional tournament playersí receive. High stakes cash game professionals consistently make more money, with less variance than their tournament peers while playing against much tougher competition. Why then do most great tournament players not play high stakes cash games? Well the answer is many do, until the end up losing all of their money to the cash games pros; the smarter ones know better than to try.
Many people make the argument that there are great tournament players and then there are great cash game players.† I donít believe their argument.† A great poker player should be able to excel in both arenas, and the so called ëgreatí tournament players have simply ran way above expectation† (i.e got lucky) or have a ëstyleí the naturally exploits the weak-tight play of many big buy-in tournament players.† Just because a player can succeed in the tournament arena vs. weak players does not make them a great player.
To further my argument lets say Kobe Bryant played in the And 1 basketball league and averaged 45 points a game.† His teammate a 5í5 point guard named Donkey Joe who shot 70% from the three-point line and beyond averaged 60 points a game.† Is Donkey Joe a better basketball player than Kobe?† Of course not he had a skill that could exploit the poor defense of the And 1 league.† But if you put Donkey Joe into the NBA he would struggle to score any points against the better players while Kobe would still rack up 30 points a game.† Kobe is clearly the superior player.
I know that much of what I write might seem arrogant and self-absorbed and I understand that, and I understand the perspective of people who think that. Iím writing from the viewpoint of a twenty-two self made high-stakes poker professional and I am just writing for those and who want a vantage point into that world and to clarify my own thoughts.
