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I flew in from North Carolina the day before and got caught up on a few things. For one, I played in the Wednesday night Negreanu Open and caught up on some e-mails, hit 200 golf balls, watched the tube, and before I knew it I had to try and get some sleep for my 6:00am wake up call. After watching the season finale of The Surreal Life I looked at the clock and it was almost 2:00am. I slept awkwardly, and at about 5:00am I felt like I had to puke. Luckily, that was a false alarm and I slept for another hour. I didn’t have to pack a bag since I’d only be leaving town for the afternoon. I threw on an FCP dress shirt and some pinstripe dress pants and headed to the airport, armed with only a few issues of The Hockey News. My flight was scheduled to leave at 8:35am and I didn’t get to the airport until 8:00am. Normally, that means you miss your flight, but with no bags to check and my boarding pass in hand, I went straight to the security gate and made it there during the boarding process. I was picked up at the Burbank airport- my favorite airport in the world- and we headed to a studio about ten minutes from the airport. When I got there, Brian Fidler, my prot
No poker tournaments, interviews, appearances, TV stuff, writing, FCP stuff, STACKED stuff… just me, doing what I want when I want.
Mind you, these “breaks” are costly sometimes since they get me behind on some responsibilities. Mostly phone calls, e-mails, and all the writing that I do. If I don’t take these breaks, though, I’ll go insane.
So recently I’ve been focusing hard on my golf game, playing a little online poker, and also took a trip down to Bellagio.
Online, I played in the Wednesday night Negreanu Open and showed up about a half an hour late because I had to be with Lori. She was getting Lasik surgery on her eyes. Now she sees in high def, but they didn’t have the picture in picture option available.
So anyway, within the first round of play (for me) I pick up JJ. I raise the minimum, and a guy moves all on me with A2. He beats me, but that wasn’t the worst of it.
In the chat box, one of the players at the table says, “Cool, the “blanks” won the Amazing Race!” I was fuming at the time. I tivo everything and watched the whole season of Amazing Race. The finale hadn’t even aired yet on the west coast, but now I know who won.
There should be a new internet poker rule: No revealing the winner of Reality TV shows. C’mon people, this is the Tivo age! Oh well, at least it was the group that I wanted to win.
So after I got knocked out I felt like “goofing around” for a little bit. I decided to sit down in a $25-$50 blind NL Hold’em game at FCP. Normally when I play I buy in for the maximum, but I thought, let’s try something new?
So instead, I sat down with the minimum buy in, of $500. On hand #1 I got dealt As Qs and won a couple hundred. Within 25 minutes, I ran that $500 into over $6000! It was an unreal rush and a lot of fun for me.
Along the way, I took down AA with Ad 2d when I made the nut flush, sweet!
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Thursday was a great day all around. The kind of day that I look forward to when I’m getting old and grey. I woke up at around noon and got a call from E-DOG. He let me know that him and Ivey were headed over to TPC Summerlin.
I hopped in the shower and headed right over to hit some balls before the round. Ivey and Erick were already there hitting balls when they let me know that we’d be playing a five some. Joining us were Barry Greenstein and Doyle Brunson.
The fun all started before the round when we were figuring out what the strokes should be. Ivey gives me five a side and Erick gives me twelve a side. It was nine a side but Erick beat me so we adjusted a few times.
Barry agreed to give me a stroke a hole, and Doyle gave me five a side. We all played from the white tees except for Doyle. Doyle plays from the red tees and also has a few other stipulations to make things fair. On his second shot, Doyle can tee it up from anywhere. Also, since he has a bad hip, he doesn’t have to hit out of the sand. Instead, he drops behind the sand, no closer to the pin.
The amounts we were playing for I won’t tell you, but with this crew, it’s safe to assume that we weren’t playing for $20 a hole!
Doyle amazed me. He chips and puts so well, even at age 72. As for me, I had a great day. We played the back nine first and I shot a 53. One of the holes really annoyed me:
On number five I hit a decent shot, a 7 wood a little too long that landed on the cart path, nestled between the concrete and the bush. No sweat in a typical match where you’d get a favorable drop, but we were playing “Gamblers rules.”
I hate gamblers rules, it’s just too cut throat, even for me. Anyway, I was lying 2 about 30 yards from the hole, but had no shot. Even worse, if I wanted to take a penalty drop, I’d have to hit it off the cart path! I lost that hole and was fuming.
I closed out well making par, and then started the front nine going par, bogey, bogey! That’s huge for me. A 50 on the back, and I shot a good score (for me) of 103.
I did everything well. I was hitting it pretty fair off the tee, I chipped and put well also. I could have hit some better approach shots, but frankly, a lot of the great shots I hit were TOO good. I hit some 5-woods off the fairway that went longer than I thought I could hit it and landed in bunkers.
The two best shots I hit, though, were out of the bunker. I like the sand, just call me “Mr. Sandman.” From about 110 yards in the sand, I hit a 7-iron onto the green- twice!
After the round was over I went home to take a quick shower. Then at 9:30pm, a few of us met down at Bellagio to play some poker. The game started out as a $3000-$6000 mixed game with a $75,000 cap in the pot/no limit games.
We kicked it up after about 4 hours, though, and eventually the game was $4000-$8000. Eli went to the drawer and grabbed all the games:
A-5 Triple Draw
2-7 Triple Draw
2-7 Single Draw (no limit)
7 Card Stud High-Low Regular
Pot Limit Omaha
No Limit Hold’em
Hold’em
Omaha H/L
Razz
Stud
Stud H/L
A total of 11 different games. THAT”S poker ladies and gentlemen. You want to be a legitimate player, you are just going to have to learn all of the games. You’ll also probably have a ton of fun with it too.
Right off the bat I won virtually every hand of Stud H/L and was up about $140,000. On the next round, though, playing Omaha H/L I proceeded to get scooped almost every hand and lost back about $100,000.
Although I was tired from golf, I feel like I played awesome. I made some great moves, lay downs, and had a good read on my opponents. On one hand of the No Limit Holdem round a hand came down like so:
I limped in for $2000 with KK. Two others limped, and five of us took the flop. The flop came 10-10-4. The big blind led out for $8000 and I called. There was already $10,000 in the pot, so I was getting 2.5 to 1 on the call.
Everyone else folded and the turn came an 8. The big blind checked, as did I. The river came a 2, and once again the big blind checked. Something smelled really fishy to me about that check, though, so I decided to check figuring that my opponent was way too good to call me with a pair of fours in that spot.
He turned over K-10 and although I lost the pot I felt great about my play on the hand.
I really played well in the A-5 triple draw. That’s a game few people play, but it’s one of my favorites. Most people are so used to playing 2-7 triple draw and sometimes fail to understand how the hand values change in A-5.
I made a couple great moves in that game and earned myself two significant pots. By the end of the night, at about 6:00am I couldn’t keep my eyes open and quit for the night ahead $95,500. 4 hours of $3000-$6000 for -$39,000 and 3 hours of $4000-$8000 for +$134,500.
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I woke up a little later today and hung out with Mushu. We played outside while I cleaned the pool area. As we speak, I’m watching Lebron and the Cavs attempt to close out the Pistons.
Later tonight, my cousin is coming to town for a few days with his girlfriend. I may meet up with them, but I also plan on playing poker again tonight which might make it difficult.
Tomorrow, an old high school friend is getting married. All of these guys I haven’t seen in 10 years are in town for the wedding. I’m looking forward to seeing them again. That’s always a little awkward, but I’m looking forward to it. ]]>
On May 11th I flew to Los Angeles for E3 (Electronics Entertainment Expo. I planned on flying out early the next morning so all I brought with me on my flight to Burbank was a Sports Illustrated, ESPN the magazine, The Hockey News, and a few copies of Entertainment Weekly. I didn’t even bring my computer bag which I always bring. I arrived in LA at about 3:00pm and headed over to meet the “X-BOX Dudes.” A good group of guys that either work with Microsoft or X-BOX. I’m never really sure, frankly, as all these titles sound the same to me. “Hi I’m Joe, VP of Executive Marketing and Accounting for the DVD division.” “Hey Joe, Nice to meet you.” “Hey Daniel, I’m Bill, Chief Executive Officer of the S Corp division of branding and merchandising for XYZ publishing and game development.” “Cool man, you know I have no clue what that means right?” Anyway, it was a cool bunch of guys who all had jobs. That’s about as much as I understand, but luckily for me, I don’t need to know much more than that. What I do know, is that this group of guys were all instrumental in helping STACKED with Daniel Negreanu create such a positive buzz with the video game websites, industry people, retailers, and the various video gaming magazines. The plan was to play a little freeze out tournament for bragging rights. I planned on playing my A game and make sure that I got deep On the first key hand I played I was the third limper with Kd 8d for 100. The big blind “meant to raise” but somehow screwed that up and accidentally checked! The flop came K-8-4 rainbow. The big blind bet out, and I raised it right away. He called, and when the turn came a 9 he fired out another bet. I stuck it all in. My opponent, shaking like a leaf at this point, finally made the crying call with… pocket nines! Sick, so sick! No King on the river, and I was the first guy out. These guys were good sports, though, and we decided that everyone would get to “rebuy” once. I built up my stack to the chip lead in the late stages, but when my A-10 went all in against Q-8 suited I was left short stacked and bowed out in fourth place…. oh well, while my ego was slightly bruised, at least it didn’t cost me a penny! From there, we went to our next stop at the Standard hotel in downtown LA. A very cool place. In fact, I had a lot of fun there the last time I was in LA. So anyway, this was another “poker party” with some industry people that all know about STACKED and are anxiously awaiting the May 30th release date (for real, no kidding :-). We set up a tournament with four full tables and on the third hand I played I limped in for 50 with 5-5. Nobody raised before the flop and we had five players to the flop: Ks 6s 5. Sweet, a set of fives and the small blind bet 200. The UTG limper made it 500 to go and I made it 1500. The first bettor folded as did all of the other players, and then the limper made it 1000 more. Well, we only had 5000 to start so I stuck it all in just hoping that my opponent had something to call with. He did… pocket kings!!! Are you serious? I was the first one out… again? Once again, these guys were troopers and let me back in. This time, I got on a roll all the way to the final table. Once again I made it down to the final four before I took just a ridiculous beat. With Js 3d in the blind I bet a flop of 9s 7s 3s. One opponent called, and the turn came the 6d. I moved all in for a huge bet and had my opponent covered. He just decided to call me with Kc Qd! No pair and no draw! Wouldn’t you know, a Queen hit the river. Yikes… *************************************************************** I got home in the afternoon of the 12th and… well, I don’t even remember what I did so let’s just skip that day shall we? On the 13th, my new prot
FCP Heads Up Poker League we went to 2-1 on the young season thanks to Jayboogie’s win. Since he won that game, I’m going to give him the start again in week #4. More importantly, though, I got to watch my new prot
Blue Jays Win I started my day watching sports. First the Blue Jays win over the Bosox and closer B.J. Ryan shut the door as usual. This guy is just awesome, he hasn’t allowed a run yet this year. I’m very excited about this Blue Jays team and I hope they can hang with the Yankees and Red Sox this year till the very end.
Cleveland Wins A super exciting finish to the Cavs/Wizards game. Lebron James is no Michael Jordan, but he is the closest thing we have in the NBA today. I’m not only talking about talent either. He is just fun to watch.
Anaheim Wins The Ducks got the job done and advance to round two. The NHL playoffs have been bizarre. Imagine in any other sport, ALL of the top four seeds in the conference losing in the first round? Wow, that’ll make things a little easier for Ottawa in the final.
Suns Win What an exciting finish to the Lakers/Suns game. They showed an amazing stat on the Suns that I just couldn’t believe. This season, they have not won even one game by 3 points or less. In fact, they are 0-8 in those game, and just 1-5 in 4 point games! How bizarre?
Cirie is Awesome When I first started watching this season of Survivor I figured that Cirie was done for. It looked like she had no chance, but she hung in there, flew under the radar, but is now really starting to show that she understands the game as good, if not better than anyone else. She is totally manipulating the votes, all the while, she is doing it without people realizing that she is the power player.
It is also so awesome to still see Terry there after winning every immunity challenge. BEFORE week #1 I picked Terry to win it all, and Cirie to make the final four.
One more thing, I felt like Terry’s decision to give Shane a chance to spend time with his little boy was moving and smart. I’m a little shocked, as emotional as a guy that Shane is, that he didn’t offer Terry a heartfelt thank you? Anyone else surprised by that?
The fight with Aras later, I agreed with Terry entirely. The relationship between a husband and wife becomes more important than any other relationship after marriage. Giving Cirie the chance to spend time with her husband versus giving Aras a chance to hang with his mother was the logical choice. Aras just seems venomously jealous of the fact that Terry, a 46 year old man is absolutely pwning him in the challenges.
Amazing Race Shady Move Karma almost came back to bite Eric and Jeremy in the butt after they cancelled everyone else
After hanging out with the Prot
I woke up a little late and when I finally did get up I had to hurry to the shower and get ready to head over to the new MTV Canada building at Yonge and Davenport. When I finally got there, I noticed an inordinate amount of 13-15 year old girls. I was about to appear on a show that is the equivalent to TRL in the U.S. On the show with me, was a “young stud” from the very popular MTV show, Laguna Beach. As I waited for my segment on the live show, the screams were deafening! The girls just belt it out, “AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!” Amazing really. As I was waiting in the green room I met the guy that would be following me around for the next several days. He told me to refer to him as “MTV” so from here on out, if you here MTV that’s the dude I’m talking about. Anyway, he is putting together an MTV Diary episode, following me through the various things I’ll be doing in Toronto. Now, this isn’t the first time I’ve been followed around in one of these “day in the life” segments, but I was thoroughly impressed with “MTV.” This guy was a real pro and seemed to get all of the right shots without being intrusive in any way. After doing my duties at the Masonic Temple (the media building for MTV) I headed back to the hotel to meet with an old friend Ali for a quick bite. We caught up on things, and then realized we had to move it along as we were going to be meeting the prot
I’m excited. I can’t wait to meet the final 10 players and see what they are made of. I have a few ideas as to who I think “has game” but I have to remained bias and won’t tell you who I think will win it. Right now I’m at the airport with Mommy, little Foxy, and my agent Brian Balsbaugh. We actually got to the airport a little late, but having a wheelchair with us is a big time bonus. My mother is 67 years old and broke her leg years ago which sometimes still bothers her. She can walk fine, but when we get to the airport “all of a sudden” her leg starts acting up and we get wheelchair service all the way to the front of the long security line. Sweet! So the plan this weekend is pretty busy. Tomorrow I’m doing MTV Canada at about 5:30pm and then from there I’m headed to Gretzky’s to meet the crew as well as the finalists for appetizers and drinks. The next day we are shooting a pretty funny FCP commercial. I don’t want to spoil it for you, but I can tell you that I think you’ll all like it. The of course on Sunday, you can join us at www.fullcontactpoker.com for a live webcast of the final table. If you haven’t already done so, also check out the totally free pool that we are running during the final table. Click here for details on how to enter The next day is the final of the Daniel Negreanu Canadian Collegiate Poker Championships, and after that I’ll be doing Off the Record and other various media stops. I have more to share, but the plane is about to board… see ya.]]>