August 24th do a show for Fox Sports Net
August 25th filming National television commercial
August 26th celebrate Lori’s Birthday (it’s on the 27th)
August 27th-30th play the WPT event at the Legends
August 31st drive back to Las Vegas
September 1st-7th Honeymoon in Maui
September 8th-12 Work on DVD project
September 9th STACKED review party
September 13th-16th WSOP Circuit Event
September 17th STACKED commercial
September 18th fly to Atlantic City
September 19th to 22nd WPT Borgata (with Logos!)
September 23rd Fly to Grand Rapids
September 24th Luke and Lin’s Birthday Party
September 25th Fly to Toronto
September 26th-27th Special Event in Toronto
September 28th-29th Television Interviews
September 29th Fly back to Grand Rapids
September 30th Another reception for Lori and me
October 1st Fly to Toronto
October 1st Do AHL Draft
October 4th Fly back to Las Vegas
As we speak I’m all packed up and ready to hit the road for LA.
I am ready to get back to work, though, as I did have a ‘little’ break over the last little while. I’m really looking forward to the honeymoon as it’s going to be the first vacation I’ve ever taken since I started playing poker 14 years ago. I’ve been to cool places, but it’s always been poker related. Hawaii will be all about spending time with Lori, golfing, snorkeling, getting massages, and enjoying some of the wonders of this Earth.
BOOM! Then it will be back to work non-stop for a while. Now it often sounds like I complain in this blog that I’m too busy, but the truth is… I think I enjoy being busy, I truly do. If I didn’t enjoy what I was doing then I guess I just wouldn’t bother? I mean I don’t really “have to” do any of this stuff, but I do have to do it because it’s part of who and what I am. I drive in the fast lane and I enjoy living in the fast line… with a rest stop here and there along the way.
Almost midnight people, time for me to hit the road…]]>
So I missed my first flight to Toronto and left a day later getting in at 7:30am on the 4th, just in time to make it over to Chris Pronger’s Celebrity Golf tournament.
Of course, Gord “Andretti” picked me up in his boss Rick Silver’s (of the National Poker Tour in Toronto) white stretch limo that he lets me use when I’m in town.
Gord got me to Lion Head Golf course right on time as usual, but what happened next was a little bizarre. The entrance into the Golf course was blocked off by protestors with picket signs and all.
I had absolutely no clue what was going on, but read signs like:
“McGuinty kills animals”
“Liberals are racist”
“McGuinty should be ashamed”
I had absolutely no idea who this McGuinty dude was, but apparently he pissed off a lot of people!
The protestors surrounded my limo and started shouting at me through the tinted windows. It finally dawned on me that they must think I’m McGinty! It was straight out of a Seinfeld episode.
Gord rolled down his window and was handed some literature. As for me I had no clue what to do. I didn’t want to get beat down or anything, but they just wouldn’t move and the cops did nothing to help.
Finally I rolled down my window and said, “Who’s McGuinty? I have no idea what’s going on here guys, I’m not from around here.”
Luckily a few of them recognized me and where like, “Hey, you’re the poker guy! Cool, let him through guys.”
I went from thinking I was in for a beat down to actually signing a few hats.
Once inside I headed to the locker room to prepare. I met Pronger and we talked a little bit about his recent trade to the Edmonton Oilers which he seemed excited about. The team’s made some nice acquisitions and should be decent this year, especially with a monster like Pronger back there on defense.
Then I met with the group I’d be playing with. A very cool group to golf with for sure. It was a charity event and every group that paid for the round would play with a celebrity of their choosing. Since a few of these guys were poker players, I became the obvious choice I guess.
I forewarned them that I was going to stink it up out there, but they didn’t seem to mind. I gave them all of my best excuses from, “I haven’t played in forever” to “I just flew in this morning.”
These guys were good and luckily for me the tournament was a best ball event. My goal was to try and contribute at least 3 shots on the day that they could use.
Well, it didn’t take long for shot number one. From 41 feet on the fringe I drained a 41 foot putt that had a serious break. Sweet! That was good for birdie for the team and we were off to the races.
By hole number six I knew that I really had my putter working and was feeling confident with it. From about 125 feet I nailed a putt to within one foot!
Then Petey walks right up and nails the putt for birdie. I’ll take an assist on that one since I showed him the line.
We finished up strong making birdie on 17 and eagle on 18 for a team total of -11. A nice score, but well back of the eventual winners who shot -15.
After Golf we had dinner and several people said a few words. Mike “Pinball” Clemens the former running back from the Toronto Argonauts said a prayer before we ate and everyone bowed their heads. I thought that was nice to see considering how taboo that sort of thing has become these days.
Then Mario Forgione, the owner of the Hamilton Bulldogs and organizer of the event said thank yous to all of the celebrities in attendance. He actually singled me out and thanked me for making it out there despite all of the problems I had with my flight, etc. I thought that was really nice.
The speech that really got to me came right after Mario. A young nine year old boy got up there and delivered a speech that had everyone in tears.
He was a paraplegic that obviously had trouble speaking, but did such an awesome job telling about a 10 minute story about himself and how thankful he was for everyone being there to support the various charities that help improve his, and other sick kids
Chadwick decided to give Travis a shot at a comeback and this game came down to the wire. It was my Buffalo Bills team against his San Francisco 49er squad.
In the early going it was an all out defensive battle, tied 0-0 after one quarter. Then I was able to connect on a sweet hail Mary pass and take a 7-0 lead. With just seconds left in the half, though, a defensive mistake cost me a touchdown and we went to the half tied 7-7.
I got on the board again in the third quarter and took a 14-7 lead. With just 1:08 left in the fourth quarter Travis came back strong and tied the game 14-14.
A solid drive by the Bills, though, saw me go 70 yards for a score leaving just 16 ticks left on the clock. Final Score Buffalo 21 San Francisco 14. After two matches I was defending my turf well and had a 2-0 lead in the matches.
Going into match #3 we had a little bit of a controversy. Chadwick wanted to have Travis play me in the NBA Showtime and I wasn’t too excited about that since Travis has been practicing more than I have. I finally allowed the substitution, though, and match #3 was set.
MATCH #3 NBA Showtime (2 out of 3): I went with the Toronto Raptors and the trusty duo of Vince Carter and Charles Oakley. Travis went with the Portland Trailblazers using Arvedis Sabonis and some old, short, Santa Claus lookin’, white dude that he created.
This old dude was so annoying. He nailed virtually every shot from three point land and was impossible to stop. Travis lead the game for most of the way, but I made a run in the fourth quarter sending the game to overtime tied 76 a piece!
In the overtime I took a four point lead thanks to back to back steals by Charles Oakley and it looked like I might be able to steal an early victory. Then that annoying little bugger gets hot and nails a three at the buzzer to win the first game 91-90. The old dude broke a record scoring all 91 points.
For game two we switched sides and I decided to switch strategies. I’d never really used the Indiana Pacers before, but the combination of Chris Mullin and Reggie Miller from 3 point land sounded enticing. Game 2 was Travis’ Blazers vs. my Pacers.
Things didn’t go well early and I was down as much as 11. A big push in the third quarter, though, saw me take a brief lead. In the end, though, I just couldn’t stop the old dude from shooting the lights out from three point land and lost game 2 by a score of 63-60. That got Chadwick on the board and netted him $500.
The next set of games was scheduled to take place over at E-DOG’s bachelor pad. E-DOG wasn’t even there, but his roommates Bill and Ryan were home.
E-DOG added an air hockey table since the last time I was there which kept people occupied. Jennifer and Marco dropped by for a little bit also.
Chadwick was practicing at the pool table while Jeffgen was outside working on his special HORSE shots.
MATCH #4 8-Ball (2 out of 3): I really didn’t think I could lose at the pool, but anything can happen. Especially if I play terribly. Chadwick had a legitimate shot to win both games 1 and 2 thanks to me missing some easy ones, but in the end I was able to pull it out and won both games. That had me back up 3-1 after four matches.
MATCH #5 9-Ball: 9-ball is a more fluky game so I was definitely worried about this one. Chadwick making the 9 ball in game one had me even more worried.
In game 2, he scratched giving me ball in hand. The one ball was lined up with the 9-ball and gave me an opportunity to go for a 1-9 bank combo in the side pocket. I smacked it in and was back to 1-1.
Game 3 was ugly. I made some really nice shots early on, but then just blew it down the stretch and Chadwick pulled one out with his wife Holly cheering him on, leaving the score Daniel 3, Team FCP 2.
I didn’t think I had a prayer in my next match. Jeffgen was out there practicing for an hour and was doing some behind the basket shots that had my jaw dropping, “I can’t do that!”
MATCH #6 HORSE (2 out of 3): Jeffgen starts out on fire with all these ridiculous and crazy shots. Underneath the basket, behind the basket, through the leg up and over lay ups. I was doomed, down HORS to H.
Then Jeffgen left the door open and I decided to go with my bread and butter Chris Mullin baseline shot. It’s the only real weapon I have!
I was able to make a couple and the good news is Jeffgen was having tons of trouble from that spot! I ended up coming all the way back from down HORS to H, and won the first game!
In the second game I went with more of the same: baseline jumpers. I actually strategized using some poker theory. The shots he was trying to make were very low percentage shots. If he made one he’d pretty much ensure that I’d get a letter, but he just couldn’t make that many.
I decided to keep control of the ball by taking very high percentage shots. I could make about 80% and if he missed one along the way, great. Well, it turns out that Jeffgem was having trouble with the easy ones!
His strategy was to practice all of these crazy shots out in the heat. How did I prepare? By not practicing at all and having a beer with the guys inside where it was nice and cool!
I ended up winning game two also HORSE to HO. That gave me a comfortable lead going back to my place, 4-2.
Our limo driver picked us up at 5:15pm and we all headed back to my house to finish off the matches. Next on the agenda was an 18 hole match play vs. Royal Tour.
MATCH #7 Golden Tee: Royal Tour picked the course and went with an easy one, Blue Horizon. Right out of the gate I was smoking him. If I’d been keeping score I’d have been on record pace after nine holes. I think I made zero pars on the front 9, 7 birdies and 2 eagles.
After 11 holes I clinched the win and was now looking at 5 wins to 2 losses going into the final match of the day.
MATCH #8 No Limit Hold’em: Chadwick decided to take me on himself in the no limit hold’em and he gave me a tough test. It was tough to get a read on him, because frankly I’m not so sure HE knew what he was doing!
In the end, though, I grinded him down and ended the day 6-2 which meant a $1000 prize for Chadwick. That, and of course the free trip and all.
By that time Evelyn and David Williams dropped by to check out a cool feature called Inside STACKED that compiled several interviews and some other footage from the photo shoot we did for the game. The piece was just awesome and everyone who saw it agreed.
We all had a little time to hang out before heading back to Wynn for dinner and I had a chance to talk to Chadwick and his wife Holly a little more. Now, this is what blows me away: I have been an MTV reality show freak for years and have watched almost every season of Real World and Road Rules. Something about Holly and Chadwick looked familiar to me when he finally let me know that they were both on Road Rules!
The dude who won my logo contest was from Road Rules! Anyway, Chadwick actually had an interesting question for me. Both Chadwick and Holly are Christians and have had their problems when expressing their beliefs in the public eye. They’ve both been shunned for expressing their beliefs publicly and wanted to know how I handle it.
I explained to them that being a Christian isn’t all that popular. Especially when people connect your beliefs to some of the horrible things that some Christians might do to others. From being too judgmental, self righteous, or just too “preachy.” Personally, I hate all that just as much as many of the non-believers do.
All in all, though, I just expressed to them that not everyone is going to like you and if they do then you aren’t being true to yourself. You need to be able to go to bed at night happy with who you are and what you believe.
We ended up having a great conversation and I look forward to meeting up with them next time I’m in LA- very cool people.
The time came when everyone needed to head back to Wynn to freshen up for dinner at Wing Lei. We had a private room there for 11 that was just awesome. It was just the finalists, myself, and Team FCP.
Before we started dinner Jason Bo did something I thought was very thoughtful. My birthday had just passed and I didn’t get any gifts. Jason remembered that and brought me a gift. Something I’ll definitely use for sure too. It’s a leather Team Canada jacket that says Canada on the back and has the Canadian flag on the left chest. Thanks Jason, I truly appreciate it.
We started dinner with a few toasts. It seemed like everyone got their turn to share a toast and it got us all a little toasty if you know what I mean! Chadwick ordered up some hot sake and we spun it around the table, literally. I have no idea how many bottles of sake we went through and I don’t really wanna know!
Things started to get hairy as dinner was winding down. I had a full eggplant dish that I never touched, because I was already full. I don’t know how it happened, but somehow Chris Lash convinced Chadwick to eat the whole dish in two minutes and he’d win $100.
No way. There was no way he could eat all that in two minutes. Well, after about a minute it looked like Chadwick was doomed. Then in the last 30 seconds he kicked it into turbo mode and scarfed it all down! I couldn’t believe, then I remembered that he’s done a Real World/Road Rules Challenge before so this must have been a piece of cake for him.
Speaking of cake, when the dessert came out it also came with a plate of Wasabi for all 11 of us. Somehow, we got the idea to offer $200 to anybody to eat all that. That could like, kill you!
I decided to ask the waiter if he would do it. He said no, but that his assistant waiter would do it. The assistant came in, but was still saying no. “How about $300?” I said.
Still no. “OK, $500 to eat that whole dish of Wasabi!” It was my final offer and with some heavy coaxing from the others he finally agreed.
This poor guy inhaled like a pound of Wasabi all in one shot. You just had to see his face! In fact, you might get a chance to because we have it on video, LOL. He looked like he was going to pass out, but he managed to scarf down all that Wasabi and won himself $500.
Apparently the poor guy went to the bathroom and threw it all up. He is going to feel that one for the rest of the week!
Our last stop of the night was La Bete where we arranged for a table right next to the dance floor. The place was jam packed, but we were able to get in through the VIP line. It pays to have connections (wink, wink).
We had some more drinks there and had a good time dancing the night away. In the meantime, I had absolutely no intentions of driving home. Not after all the Sake! Sake! Sake! we had at dinner, coupled with the beers during the day, and finally the vodka cranberry drinks at the club.
The always thoughtful Jason Bo and the Governator walked me to the Taxi stand and I hit the sack like a ton of bricks.
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Today is all about relaxing for me. Surfing the net, watching some TV, and vegging out on the couch with Mushu. I’ve also made a decision to start contributing to the Poker Strategy Forum at www.fullcontactpoker.com. I’m active in the General Forum, but really could do more by adding content to the Strategy section that is already huge.
In other news, my mini-trip to Toronto is all set. I’m on a red eye that gets me into Toronto on the 3rd and I head back to Vegas on the 7th. The main purpose of the trip is to play in the Chris Pronger Celebrity Golf Tournament. I’m kinda worried actually, I already suck at Golf and I haven’t hit a ball in forever! Guess what I’ll be doing tomorrow!]]>
200-400
300-600
400-800 (100 ante)
600-1200 (100 ante)
800-1600 (200 ante)
1000-2000 (200 ante)
1500-3000 (300 ante)
That’s as far as we got, but I had plans for the structure if it went longer.
In the first round I “schooled” Jeffgen by first hitting a two outer to make aces full and then getting a check raise in vs. his nines full. Sweet!
Things looked good at my table. Chadwick was racking up the chips while Royal Tour was holding steady. Governator was stinkin’ up the joint early and was getting short stacked until the following hand:
Chadwick limped in for 800 as did the Gov. I checked from the blind with Q-7. The flop came Q-10-5 rainbow and it got checked around.
The turn came a 2 and I fired out 1000. Chadwick folded and Governator just called. The river came a 3 and I figured that I’d value bet 2000 so that the Gov. could keep his last 3000… then he raised me!
What the? How could that card of helped him? I looked over at him and just knew he wasn’t bluffing, but was too stubborn to throw my hand away like I should of. Not sure I would have been able to sleep at night if he got away with a bluff like that.
I figured he had to have the A-4, but he ended up turning over 33! Oh man, did that ever suck!
We started with 16 players and with 7 left at the final table I found myself in rough shape with 9600 left. I called a 4300 raise with A-J from late position suspecting a steal and I was right- Ed had K-J.
Only problem was, here comes the Governator one more time waking up with AA in the big blind. You suck Governator!
That hand did me in and I was forced to watch from the rail. I still have no clue why it bothered me so much to lose, but man I really wanted to win that thing! Oh well, I “chunked off” my chips again I guess.
It ended up getting down to Royal Tour with a chip lead heads up against the Gov. The Governator ended up taking top prize and also won the bounty by busting me. I’ll let Governator tell y’all how he did it when he posts about it in the General Forum at www.fullcontactpoker.com when the weekend is over.
I stuck the needle into the Gov. pretty hard, but he handled it well. It was all in good fun and it was my money anyway so I had the right to needle him I guess, LOL.
So that was that for the evening and tomorrow at noon I plan on taking on the FCP crew in 8 challenge matches. The goal is 8-0, but I think they have a few ringers waiting for me. Apparently Jeffgen is a baller so I’m probably a dog in the H.O.R.S.E. match at E-DOG’s, but I feel pretty good about all of the rest of the matches.
For those of you who don’t know, here’s what we’ll be playing:
Limit Hold’em
NBA Showtime
NFL Blitz
8-Ball
9-Ball
Golden Tee
H.O.R.S.E. (Basketball)
No Limit Hold’em
For each game I lose, Chadwick will win himself $500. Of course he has an option to let any of the other FCP Logo finalists play for him in any of the games and can work out any deal that he wants.
In all honesty, I’m not in tip top shape for the matches. I haven’t practiced at all and might be a little rusty. The good news is, I’ve got home court advantage!]]>
I spent all day today on conference calls or in meetings. Actually yesterday afternoon was much of the same. On the conference call we worked on a DVD project I have planned and I’m very excited about the way the call went. One thing I can guarantee, is that this poker DVD will be unlike any you’ve ever seen before. A totally unique format that I’m hoping you’ll all be entertained by, while actually learning a thing or two along the way.
The rest of the day was spent talking with the FCP Biz Team about this weekend. We wanted to put together a solid game plan for the weekend so that everyone gets the most out of it.
I am looking really forward to this weekend and think it’s just going to be an awesome time for all. Everything is set and ready to go. We got grub, we got drinks, and we are gonna have a house full of FCPers sharing war stories.
Tomorrow everyone gets here in the afternoon and then the plan is to play a free roll tournament at Wynn. It’ll be a pretty quick structure, but it should still last about 3-4 hours.
Then of course on Saturday we have a full day of events planned revolving around the theme of the eight challenges I promised to play the FCP Logo Contest winner. Some of the challenges we’ll do at my house, while others we’ll do over at E-DOG’s bachelor pad.
That night, the finalists and I will have dinner at Wing Lei over at Wynn. I’m sure when the weekend is over you’ll hear from all of the participants as they’ll likely give you their take on how the weekend went. Checkout the General Forum at www.fullcontactpoker.com to read more about it.
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Last night, I played a freeze out against Evelyn Ng, Carlos Mortenson, Erick Lindgren, Jennifer Harman, Daniel Negreanu, Josh Arieh, and David Williams.
Once again, “E-DOG” owned Negreanu and busted him out first with AK versus AQ. The next to go was Jennifer Harman when her AK ran into David Williams AA.
Josh Arieh should have been the next player eliminated, but he doubled up like seven hands in a row! It was the scariest thing, he was all in for the big blind and came all the way back to being an above average stack.
David Williams went down followed by Evelyn Ng and so it was down to just me, E-DOG, Josh and Carlos Mortenson. With the blinds getting way up there I found myself in a three way pot all in with KQ vs. K8 and 87.
I couldn’t ask for a better spot, but E-DOG hit the 8 and sent me to the rail. What can I say, the kid’s got my number. Not only did he bust me once in the tourney, but twice!
For those of you that haven’t figured it out yet and are wondering, huh? Did Daniel lose his mind or something?
No, I’m just fine thank you. I finally got a copy of STACKED with Daniel Negreanu in the mail and was testing it out by playing a single table satellite against the pros. I really can’t explain in words how cool that is. Especially for a guy like me that grew up playing fantasy sports and video games.
I ended up playing STACKED for like four hours straight, watching the Poker School and then fiddling with all of the features in the career mode.
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It