This past week I was at the Palms Casino for the taping of the US Poker Bowl. Instead of playing poker I was doing my "new role" as a tv host. This poker tournament was a little different than usual... 25 teams competed for 1 million dollars. ( Steve Dannenman's team Cincinati won the tournament.) As this is a new concept, many players have their own opinions on team poker and not all of them are good. But who knows? In this day in age, change is always good.
Speaking of change... i chopped my hair! Well not really chopped, but I cut it a little past my shoulders. I got the hair cut right before the poker bowl started. Just wanted to change things up a bit. Alas don't worry my hair grows fast and in a month you wont even know I cut it...
Anyway, the poker bowl was a fun experience. I saw a lot of friends that I haven't seen since the WSOP and I made some new friends at the same time. : ) Things were a slight bit hectic for everyone. Since it's the first tournament of its kind, everything that could possibly go wrong somehow did. In the end, everything was smoothed out. Thank goodness. Make sure to check it out early 2008 on Fox Sports. :)
This summer I spent 48 days (in a row) at the World Series of Poker, held at the Rio, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Being the 3rd year for me I was excited to be back, regardless of what had recently happened. My online sponsor dropped the entire team without notice right before the wsop. Luckily I was hired to be a correspondant for the world series of poker website. This gave me a chance to be more involved with the series and I could still play in tournaments of my choice. In a perfect world everything would have been great, but sadly it was quite dissapointing. Maybe that's the reason it's taken over 3 months to blog about it. I'm going to post this now and add to it as much as I can when I get free time. So make sure to check back. :)
Well I have exactly 5 minutes that I've allowed to keep everyone posted. Getting into Vancouver around midnight I was expecting to just see the driver who was picking me up at the airport. As I walked out, I hear my name coming from somewhere. I look up and on the floor above me, I was pleasantly surprised to see three of my favorite Canadians waving and smiling! I love you guys, that was so sweet! And riding in a limo from the 1970's was totally pimp...lol. Good times.
I have no doubt in my mind that this week is going to be a great one! My first tournament starts in 25 minutes. It's going to be a 6 handed NL Holdem tournament, one of my favorites. With about 300 and change playing, it will be very interesting to see how everything turns out. Keep your fingers crossed, because mine will be wrapped around my new good luck charm. (Thanks Theo!)
My morning is off to a GREAT start. I had room service bring the usual (oatmeal, english muffin, small OJ and coffee) to wake me up. Wake up calls have no effect on me, I just sleep on through. And since the beds here at the River Rock Casino are the best beds I've ever slept in, I knew a simple phone call wouldn't do the trick. I must say that I feel like a kid about to go to Disneyland. I've been laughing out loud at almost every commercial I've seen and staring out the window every few minutes soaking up the beautiful view. (there is this milk commercial with a caveman that is the funniest thing I've seen in a looong time) And in just a few minutes I'll be playing!!! woo hoo.Now all I need is a french vanilla from Tim Hortons and I'll be on cloud 9. : ) K kids, wish me luck, I'm off to win a tourney....
We're just a few days away from the Johnny Chan Poker Classic at the River Rock Casino in Vancouver, British Columbia. (wow that's a long sentance) I've been looking forward to this event for the past two months. I'm quite certain that this will be a great tournament. My game is at it's best right now and I have a gut feeling the next few tourneys I play in will prove it to be true.
This weekend I made two final tables... only not in the tournaments I wanted... no luck in the wsop circuit. I also missed the ladies event on sunday. Showing up at 12:15 thinking that 15 min late would be a good thing (i'll explain) was not such a good idea. Aparently it started at 11am and I was too late to register. LAME. How can you have 95% of your tourneys all week at noon and then make the ladies play earlier?! I'll say it again... LAME. The reason I showed up late was of my early exit with pocket aces the year before. Last year the 3rd hand I was dealt on the button was the all mighty AA.Turns out a little old lady decided to push allin preflop in mid position. THE BLINDS ARE 25-25... wtf? I'm never going to lay down aces preflop... who the hell would? I call and she flips over 88. I'm feeling pretty damn good to double up, three hands into this tourney, until an 8 of clubs hits on the river. And I'm out of the tournament. So I figure being late this year would at least save me from being the first one eliminated in the event. Oh well, not too upset... really not diggin playing with all chicks. I'd much rather play with the boys. ; )
I do have great news! I haven't been able to share this with anyone since I've been so busy. I'm now going to be covering the WSOP events by doing the exit interviews for the final tables. The WSOP and Bluff magazine are doing live coverage of the final tables on broadband for all the circuit events and about 18 wsop events at the Rio this summer. Woo hoo! You can watch the final tables live* on a 1/2 hour delay* and see hand for hand all of the hole cards and the action that you would never see on tv. Make sure to check it out at: www.worldseriesofpoker.com
Today was my first day covering the WSOP final table at Caesar's Palace. Cory Carroll won $506,176, a seat to the WSOP main event and a championship ring. Congrats! I can't tell you how much fun today was.I was able to hang out with great people and talk poker all day long. My kind of day. :) It was great to see 3 well known pros at the final table: Chad Brown ( Bluff's 2006 player of the year), David "the dragon" Pham, and Steve Wong (2nd place in Festa al Lago). Being my first day on the gig, I really learned some important things for this summer. One of them I'll share... when a big stack goes bust on a donk move... they do NOT want to be asked: how do you think you played today? Maybe I should rephrase the Q and say: so pushing all in on a J high flop with AK wasn't the best play against pocket 10's, you think? Nope... I think that'll piss him off too. Well I guess I have a few weeks till the next WSOP circuit event in New Orleans to come up with better questions. They'll get better I promise.
Well kids it's getting late and I've got an early flight in the morning. I'll fill y'all in on the rest later. Have a great weekend everyone!
But who knows? In this day in age, change is always good. 
But who knows? In this day in age, change is always good. 
