Diary of a Poker Diva - Liz Lieu

This is how I feel sometimes!! I wanted to say a special thanks to everyone who left me positive comments about my last blog. A lot of people messaged me or sent comments to me on Twitter and mentioned how much they liked it.

Sometimes it’s difficult to expose yourself to the world in a personal way. There is an extra layer of vulnerability. I know I have had friends in the poker community go through some very tough times in a very public way.

It’s strange to be exposed to people who don’t really know you intimately and then having to hear about the negativity in the news or on a public forum where thousands and thousands of people view the gossip.

I am thinking about ways to improve this blog and share more of myself with you. Bear with me as I continue to work through some of my apprehension and expose more of my personal life with you. The hardest challenge is to find that balance between my public persona and the real me. I am always honest in every blog or interview I have ever done. I am sometimes guarded however with my responses.

I feel like there is this thin line between what is really personal and what I should share with the public. For instance just yesterday I received some very bad news about one of my half sisters in Vietnam. I have been looking for this sister for almost two years now.

This sister was basically missing or lost and I’ve been very worried about her. I go back to Vietnam frequently and nobody knew where she was. I just received some news that she is in a very tough life situation. And it’s something I cannot fix. I also have word of other relatives that are also having much hardship. The news is quite heart breaking.

I know others are going through the same type of life problems so I don’t want anyone to have extra sympathy for me. I just wanted everyone to know sometimes, I go through the exact same range of emotions as you.

I have had some recent events happen to me that are quite negative. Some business relationships and unfortunate news with friends and family. The worst part is that I have had people in my life who are aware of this and they still continue to try and take from me. The most unfortunate part about having any type of success is sometimes you have people who surround you that are strictly users.

I understand this is a part of success and now that I have been able to sustain a certain level of success and gain some wisdom, I am better at selecting the type of people I get into business with. The type of people I surround myself with. The biggest revelation to me this year was how much I distracted myself with poker and work. Instead of facing many of life’s problems, I just played more poker. Or I spent more time working on my other websites.

I understand now that I cannot run away from my problems. I came across a video which almost parallels my life perfectly. For those of you who want to know me on a more personal level, my life, pretty much looks like this:

My Love “The Story of A Diva”

Anyhow, I hope you enjoy the videos. It’s pretty powerful. I have gone through many moments and times in my life where I felt the exact same way.

The holidays are a really reflective time for me. Partially because I am going through my first Thanksgiving without my father and I really want to reflect upon life and think back to everything I should be thankful for. All my Dad ever wanted for me was happiness.

I cannot help but think about that as I continue the rest of my life’s journey without him. So, in honoring his unselfish and complete love for me, I am doing my best to be positive and to be happy!

I also want to address all of the past negativity in my life. I am washing my hands of unsuccessful business relationships. I am washing my hands of being around people who are constantly taking and never giving.

At this stage of my life, I just really want to be surrounded by positive people! I want to enjoy life with people I love. And I also want to be a little less vulnerable. I want my public persona to be a little more reflective of my private life. So, this is another step in that direction.

So, lets all be thankful we have each other to share in our lives and to be positive and live out our life the best way we possibly can. And always be aware of how you affect others!!

Be a positive influence not a negative one!

Cheers!

Happy Thanksgiving for those of you in the States! For many of us this is a good time to reflect and think about the value of family and the importance of friends and life.

This hasn’t been the easiest year, 2008. I lost my father in late 2007. I was actually at the table playing the Barcelona Main Event when I heard the bad news. I left in the middle of the event and immediately arranged a flight to Vietnam. I spent the first part of 2008 mostly in Vietnam . Paying tribute and respect to my father’s memorial. Doing lots of Charity work in Vietnam, I know my Dad would have wanted it that way.

Poker took a back seat for a while now that I reflect upon the year. I tried to get poker back on track and one calamity after another struck me down in early 2008. It just wasn’t meant to be I guess. For starters, I missed one of my favorite events of the year. The Monte Carlo event in Monaco. I ordered room service the night before Day 1 and came down with food poisoning the next morning. I had to pull out of that event. I flew back to the States a week later and got extremely ill, requiring me to be hospitalized and undergo surgery which took months to fully recover.

All of this occurred, just before this years WSOP. I came into the WSOP on a pretty significant lay off from tournament play but I still managed to play very well in a few events. Ultimately I just went card dead or ran into a bad beat at the wrong times.

Poker has been very choppy for me this year. The high stakes cash games in Las Vegas have dried up. There has been some good action at the Commerce lately. I have had to go to L.A. a few times to find good games. Outside of L.A., the games have been pretty limited.

Because of my heavy travel schedule in 2008 and the lack of juicy cash games, I spent more time online than ever before. I’ve had very mixed results online. I have had some good sessions and some not so good ones. I am a winning player online, overall, but I definitely have less of an edge online than I do live. I think I really need to get back to the Commerce and get back to those cash games. This is a goal of mine in 2009! To play a lot more cash!!

Despite the rough year, I have many things to be thankful for! And I have grown as a person and become stronger. I still have my mother, sister, brothers, nieces, and nephew to enjoy. I have a good support system around me and many reasons to smile. A few very close friends have supported me emotionally and spiritually throughout the year and really helped me through some personal setbacks. Alexandre Dreyfus and Chilipoker have also been wonderful to me.

Life isn’t always perfect but it is always exactly as it was meant to be. A friend of mine just came across a very fitting quote and I like to post it here. I don’t know who to attribute the quote to? If you know make a comment.

“There is nothing for you to go back and live over, or fix, or feel regret about now. Every part of your life has unfolded just right. And so –now — knowing all that you know from where you now stand, now what do you want? The answers are now coming forth to you.”

In that spirit, life is good. I am lucky to have the freedom to travel. I have travelled all over the world and visited some beautiful places. In the past year, I have been to London, France, Poland, Italy, Australia, Hong Kong, Macau and Malta just to name a few.

I have very entertaining friends in the poker community. Love them or hate them, the poker community is like a large dysfunctional family. Some of them party too much. Some of them have unnecessary drama. Some of them just simply gamble too much. No!! I am not naming names. I am very protective of my friends and family. I don’t judge any of my friends for whatever they are going through. Sometimes it’s just a phase. Sometimes they are using it as a distraction for other issues. I love them all regardless!

I’m privileged to belong to such an interesting community of people. Not to say 2008 has been perfect. I have lost a few friends. I have gained new friends. I have drifted further from some and closer to others. That is life. Poker can be a very competitive game and sometimes a few toes are stepped on. Feelings are hurt and drama ensues. But we fight and make up and do it all over again. Just like any big family. We usually make amends and all that begins well should end well.

It is important to keep your sanity at times and I can honestly say I have been keeping it together better and better. This is what I am thankful for. I am thankful for having a positive life perspective. I am thankful of not being envious, jealous and bitter of others.

I am thankful that I don’t judge others and I try not to let those who judge me influence my emotional state of mind. I am thankful for charity and love. So many people showered their sincere feelings with me during some rough times. I know I am loved!

I am also much better at selecting friends and knowing who I can trust and who to keep close. I will reflect on 2008 someday and view it as a year of personal growth! I am about to celebrate Thanksgiving soon and I wanted to share with everyone that it is a way of life.

Thanksgiving shouldn’t be a single day on a calendar that we celebrate with an oversized Turkey. I travel to Vietnam frequently and other parts of the world and America has so much to be thankful for. All of us that are Americans are privileged. For the freedoms, for the democracy, for all of the little luxuries we take for granted.

I just had a funny conversation with a friend last night. We were talking about something as simple as a washer and dryer. I lived in an upscale part of London for part of last year and they don’t have separate washers and dryers?! You dry your clothes in the same machine you wash them in!

It takes about 4 hours to do a load of laundry!! In Italy, they don’t even have dryers! Or at least I didn’t come across one and have shared similar stories with others that travel frequently. Most people in Italy hang dry their clothes. These are modern first world countries. Really, we all have a lot to be thankful for. Even those simple little luxuries.

Don’t forget to appreciate the moment. Don’t forget to absorb all of life’s lessons and don’t forget to apply every bit of wisdom gained and lesson learned to forge an even better future. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! This includes all of my friends and fans around the world!

Cheers!

Quick update. Sorry for the week long delay between updates. I’ve been busy in Vancouver, playing poker, partying and even doing some commercial promos for the River Rock Casino.

Congratulations to Daniel Negreanu for winning the Main Event of the BC Poker Championships. Daniel took home the first place price worth $371,910. A bunch of poker players celebrated with Daniel at Republic on Sunday night.

I will give you more details in the next blog. I am still recovering from the trip. Who says girls cannot get along? Lacey Jones, Maria Ho, Tiffany Michelle and I stayed at the same Penthouse Suite Wednesday through Monday. The girls had some great bonding moments in Vancouver this past week! Unfortunately none of us made it deep in the main event tournament.

We arrived at River Rock Casino Resort in Richmond, British Columbia and the Poker staff and Resort were awesome! They went out of there way to make accommodations for us and make us feel welcome. I want to give a special thanks to Alex Lee Behan. Alex handles the PR for all seventeen casinos in B.C. In addition to that, Alex is a close friend of Lacey Jones and she went out of her way to make sure we had the very best experience during our time in BC. Thank you Alex!!

There were many aspects of my trip to BC. My brother Kenny Lieu lives in BC so I spent some time visiting him and his family. As most of you know my dad passed away last year and my brother Kenny looks almost identical to my dad. I cannot help but think of my dad when I visit my brother.

The second part of my trip was the actual poker. I only planned on playing the Main Event and unfortunately for me I didn’t last past the first day. I wasn’t able to pick up any chips and before I knew it I was short stacked and forced to move all in. I ran into a better hand and my tournament was over.

That only freed up more time to play online. This was difficult at first because we only had a cable modem in our Hotel Suite. I had to call the Casino Exec and he was able to coordinate with the resort to get us a wireless modem. Four girls in the penthouse suite all wanting to get internet access and play poker or get work done on our lap tops. We couldn’t do it without the wireless access and the hotel was very accommodating in helping us get wireless internet.

Lots and lots of pros were in town for the tournament. Some of the big names who also tried their luck at the table included Brad “Yukon” Booth, Gavin Smith, Lacey Jones, Mark Napier, Gabe Kaplan, Dennis Philips, Isabelle Mercier, Maria Ho, Tiffany Michelle, David Williams, and Steve Sung. The nearly 700 player field had a really good mix of amateur and professional poker players. Many recognizable online players rounded out the field. Once I was knocked out the Resort asked me if I could do some promos for them and light hosting duties.

The third aspect of the trip was just good ole fashioned fun. On Thursday night a large group of us went out to dinner. Some of the other poker players such as Michael Binger, Steve Sung, Todd Bui and all of the ladies went out to dinner. Later that night we just had a chill time in our Hotel Suite. We had drinks and laid low.

The next night, Friday, a large group of us headed into Downtown Vancouver. Lacey, Tiffany, Maria, Gavin, Brad, Steve Sung, Todd, Brian “Devo”, and about 10 other friends headed into a night club called Caprice. Lacey’s good friend Alex Lee Behan booked us a table at Caprice. We had a terrific time.

On Saturday, the girls stayed in for the night. I filmed some cutaways for the River Rock Casino Resort. To promote the Resort and the BC Poker Championships. There was also an autograph session.

On Sunday, we all stuck around the final table area to watch Daniel Negreanu win the BC Poker Championship. Once again, congrats to Daniel!! I’m back in Las Vegas and next on the Horizon is the Five Star Diamond Classic at the Bellagio in December.

I will post another blog very soon. I have some other thoughts and stories to share. But for now I need to get some rest and recover from the busy week in BC!!

Cheers!

Monday morning, I jumped into my Benz and started driving to Los Angeles to visit my Chilipoker Sponsor, Alexandre Dreyfus. I was supposed to meet him at 5am. Don’t ask. Something to do with Alex trying to stay on European time. He tries to sleep at the same time he would if he was in France.

I didn’t leave Vegas until 2:30am. I was struggling to leave at all. Alex has been so supportive of me and has been the absolutely best Sponsor anyone could ask for so there was no way I wasn’t going to drive to L.A. but I was soooo tired!! I arrived in L.A. around 6:30 in the morning and I decided to spend the rest of the week there. Alex and I had some good meetings on Monday and discussed some upcoming projects and pending business.

After joining Alex for breakfast, we decided that I take him on a sightseeing tour. We headed to Beverly Hills and Alex wanted to check out some of the homes in that area. There’s a slight chance he might move to Los Angeles someday, since he loves the weather so much. And then I took him to my favorite spot in L.A. That’s right! Rodeo Drive.

The rest of the time I just played poker online. I am not running well online!! I am actually playing quite well. I played heads up mostly. I ended up down 13k before I called it quits for the week. It was an up and down session. On Thursday I went heads up against a very loose and aggressive player and he hit so many times on the river. I wanted to puke. I would check raise and raise him on the flop and turn. Of course he had air everytime but this didn’t stop him from chasing me down and hitting every over card or draw on the river. It was pretty sick. Oh well, that’s poker right?

Here’s a funny story. It is Friday and I just returned from L.A. I am in Vegas now writing this blog from home and it took me 6 ½ hours to get here. The traffic in LA is an absolute nightmare. I called a friend and they asked me why I was driving back to Vegas on a Friday. That is the worst day to drive. I thought it was Thursday!!

Okay. I think I am going to book my trip to the British Columbia Poker Championships in Vancouver, B.C. next week. I hear it’s a great event at a great venue. I haven’t played this event before but I am looking forward too it.

The event will be held at the River Rock Casino Resort. Rumor is the first prize of the Main Event will be around one million U.S. dollars. I fly out Wednesday. I will report back from Canada and let you know how it goes. Cheers!

It’s Saturday evening and I thought I would post a quick blog before getting ready attend the Bluff Party tonight at The Bank in the Bellagio. I will be joined by some of my good friends.

For the past two days, I have been entertaining a couple friends from out of town and handling some poker business. Many people are in town this weekend for the WSOP Main Event. I will be at The RIO on Sunday to meet up with Matt Waldon to do an interview for Lifes A Bluff and possibly Flush Magazine. While I’m there I’m also gonna swing by the final table to root for David “Chino” Rheem.

Many young players can be cocky and obnoxious but Chino has never been like that. Chino has always been respectful. Chino might still be young but he is a grinder who worked his way up from the cash games and always worked hard to improve. It’s no fluke Chino is at the Final Table and I wish him the best of luck.

I am not all work and NO fun however. I did go out last night for a bit to Lavo, the new club at the Palazzo last night. I met a couple of my friends out there and we had a good evening. If you haven’t been to the Palazzo it has a similar vibe as TAO Night Club but much smaller and more intimate. Right when you walk in there is a main bar area that feels more like a cocktail lounge and the upstairs is a dance floor.

I had friend’s texting me to come to Prive and the Hard Rock as well. Unfortunately by the time I received those texts it was getting pretty late. I grabbed a few late night snacks with my friends before we decided to call it a night. Tonight should be a much more adventurous night. Last night all of my friends were spread all over the place.

Some were saving there energy for the Hoyt Corkins Charity event today. Others were at Prive or the Hard Rock or just staying low key. Most of the friends I’ve talked to are all coming out tonight so this should be a really fun evening.

It is time to go get ready. I am going to grab dinner somewhere. Not sure where yet!! I need to get ready first however. If you happen to come across this blog and see me at The Bank tonight, say Hi. Until the next blog, arrivederci.

Hump Day!! How do you blog about Monday and Tuesday? Seriously, does anything interesting ever happen on a Monday or Tuesday? Normally that is true but this Tuesday turned out to be a pretty interesting day. Once every four years on Election Tuesday, the American people get to elect a President.

I was glued to CNN most of yesterday like the rest of the Country. I don’t want to get too political because I’m not a very political person but the reaction to Obama being elected was pretty electrifying. I also want to give some respect to John McCain who conceded very graciously as he acknowledged an Obama victory. McCain’s concession was very classy!!

And what can you say about Obama?! His speaking ability and charisma remind me of a modern day John F. Kennedy. Much of Obama’s success can be attributed to the way he motivated younger generations to vote and motivated those who previously felt disenfranchised with the political process to vote. I know many Republicans are upset today but around the globe and around this nation, many people are celebrating Obama’s brand of hope and change. The election is over and what is done is done!! Let’s all move forward.

                                      (photo courtesy unknown)

On the topic of poker and politics, rumors suggest Obama is a pretty decent poker player himself and maybe he will be an advocate for poker unlike his predecessor George W. Bush. Obama has expressed an interest in regulating online poker and gambling. Doyle Brunson, a lifelong Republican, supported Obama down the stretch because the Republicans support the current ban on internet gaming. In 2009, the Democrats will have control of the House, the Senate and the Presidency. While online gaming is probably pretty far down on the priority list, there is a beam of hope for poker players. Crossing fingers!

On a more cheerful note! I watched Step Up 2 the Streets and 21 the last two days. Ha-ha. I should be ashamed of myself!! I thought Step Up 2 the Streets was kind of cute. Some of those dance moves and choreography were crazy! And 21 was entertaining. I will have to ask Andy Bloch about that someday. I know he was involved somehow with the MIT team. I will get some good stories out of him perhaps. Maybe I will post them on here for you guys.

I for one, stay away from the pits games!! That’s actually one of the dark secrets about the world of poker. How many of the players are truly gamblers!! Many of them cannot stay away from the pits. Craps, blackjack and baccarat. Or prop betting. So many times I’ve been at the Bellagio or somewhere else and noticed poker players gambling away there winnings. Some of my good friends will gamble on anything!! Usually it’s funny but the amounts they wager are sick amounts. Truly sick!!

Looking forward to this weekend by the way. I have a few parties to attend and lots of Poker Industry people are coming into town for the weekend. The Main Event of the WSOP will be played out on Sunday. I will keep everyone posted on anything interesting that happens over the weekend. Until then, Au Revoir!!

I spent the last two days just chilling at home, recuperating from the long weekend of partying with my friends. Play time’s over, now its back to business again.

I’ve got a couple of shout outs that I would like to share with everyone, it’s all good! Just around the corner in November, CardPlayer Bulgaria’s third issue is expected to hit news stands and casinos and I’m delighted to be gracing the cover of their November issue. So my poker friends and fans in Bulgaria, keep an eye out for it. A big thanks and best wishes to you all!

12-05-2008 - A documentary film entitled “IN THE RED ZONE”
Director Jean-Marie NIZAN along with LABEL-IMAGE a TV production company based in Paris, France will be traveling to Las Vegas to conduct an exclusive interview with me to talk with them about my passion with cards and the relationships between Cinema and Poker.

About the Film
A documentary with Mickey Rourke, Nascar driver + poker players Liz Lieu and a couple others.

The film focuses on 3 domains where characters gamble with their lives on-screen: the boxer in the ring, the player at the card table, and the driver on the asphalt track.

Red like the boxer’s blood. Red like the ace of diamonds. Red like the rev counter’s danger zone.

Three territories, three locations, three sets of rules to define three genres. Working from these archetypes, the directors bring their talent into play, using and purposely transgressing conventional practices.

In his look back at boxing, gambling and automobiles, the documentary’s director Jean-Marie NIZAN reviews some of the greatest moments in cinema over the last forty years: The Cincinnati Kid, Raging Bull, The Sting, Grand-Prix, Rocky, Bobby Deerfield, Casino, Million Dollar Baby, to name just a few …

Wanting to “cross” interviews of cinema people (directors and actors) who already have approach the genre and poker players, car racers and boxers.

Combining three different sports, all having one thing in common - Lives constantly living on the edge! Definitely very interesting and I’m pleased to have been approached and asked to participate in this film!

Cheers!

I’m Changing…

My blog to make it more personal. Here I will share with everyone my everyday life, new adventures, random thoughts and feelings. I hope you all will enjoy as I take you along with me on my journey through life. I will try and treat this new blog more like a journal. Making several entries throughout the week. I will keep you posted on the latest and greatest.

Welcome to the Diary of a Poker Diva! Why the change? Because I’ve changed as a person in this past year. So much has happened in my life in 2008, having to encounter some very painful experiences off the felt. In many ways this has been a transforming year for me. A year of growth despite the many personal setbacks. I wanted to share those experiences on a more intimate level with my family, fans, and friends who stuck with me through thick and thin. I hope you enjoy this new format and provide feedback.

10-26-08

Well this is a great starting point for this new blog. It was a very interesting weekend. I was able to get out of my condo in Las Vegas and hang out with so many of my close friends. On Friday, I met up with some good friends for dinner. My girlfriend Lacey Jones called me and told me we were having dinner with Michael Phelps at Simons restaurant at The Palms. Yes, that Michael Phelps. He is in town for the Festa Al Lago Classic (WPT) at the Bellagio. I arrived late but my friends Lacey Jones, Maria Ho, and Jeff Madsen were already there to greet me along with Michael and one of his poker friends Scott Freeman. After meeting Michael I thought he was a cool guy, very laid back and down to earth.

After dinner, we all hopped in a limo and headed over to TAO Night Club where Michael had a table on the dance floor under the catwalk. The MC made an announcement that Michael Phelps was in the house at the beginning of the night and everyone applauded. So many other poker players showed up as well including David Williams, Phil Laak, Phil Hellmuth, Roland De Wolfe, and Antonio Esfandiari, to name just a few. It turned out to be a really fun night and since I haven’t gone out to the clubs much at all in 2008, it was a good change of pace for me and everyone was having so much fun.

I had so much fun on Friday I thought I would roll the dice on Saturday too. I met up with Lacey and Maria again. Our plan was to go to the Cathouse at the Luxor but when we arrived, we were waiting around for a few people that we agreed to meet. I’m not a very patient person, hehe, so after awhile I decided lets do something else. Turns out a bunch of poker players had a table at the Bank. So, we decided to go there. We turned around and lost Lacey. We had some other people in our group too so me and Maria decided to head to the Bank and we knew Lacey was safe. When we arrived at The Bank, the club was packed with poker pros partying like rockstars. We partied with them for awhile and eventually I got tired and went home.

All in all it was a pretty eventful weekend. I was glad I came out and I am really excited about what is coming down the road as well.

Cheers!

Has it really been two months since I posted here? Bad, bad Liz. I have to make this more of a habit. My posts at PokerListings work out pretty well, but I neglect my own site - not good at all!

A lot has happened in these last two months. I headed to Macau to play in the APT and APPT events there. I was hoping for a return to a Final Table or two but no luck. The APT was definitely the better run of the two events. They really took care of the poker players and made me feel special.

I headed to Hong Kong and had a great time with some of my friends as well as friends of Alex. Hong Kong is a real blast, and I hope I can get back there soon. I got a great new tattoo as well in Thailand. The artist used bamboo, which takes longer but I think is nicer. After my spiritual time in my homeland for my father’s ceremony, I wanted something really special. And it is.

For the last few weeks, I’ve been back in LA. And I’ve decided to spend more time back here in LA and Vegas. I just haven’t liked being so far away from friends and family, and I haven’t been a big fan of all the travel and hotels. I liked London, but I think ultimately I was just too alone there. Maybe I didn’t give it a good chance as I was hopping around all over Europe when I got there.

I’ve been spending time at the Commerce, and the cash games have been very juicy, real action games that play to my strength. Unfortunately, I’ve had a tough run last week. I’m proud of how I handled it, running away to Cabo with my girlfriends rather than getting caught up in the emotion of a big loss. All of the beautiful casinos of Las Vegas are built on that human emotion, the fear and frustration and anger of taking a big hit. I feel those same emotions, but I’ve built a thick skin that keeps me from tilting and lets me get through these sessions.

And what a great weekend it was with my girlfriends in Cabo. Cathleen, Jackie, and Tiffany have been my friends for so long. They are the ones who give me tough love through everything, through poker, through men, through tough family times. They are so close to me that they don’t fear speaking the truth as to what they see. They had planned on going with their families for awhile, and I wasn’t sure if I would make it or not. I’m very glad I did.

I spent lots of time sunning, just relaxing without thinking about too much. Saturday was a day of rough weather, so it was just a lot of lounging around plus a spa visit. I really feel rejuvenated after this trip, and I’m ready to hit the tables hard.

I’m going to be spending most of my time in cash games at Commerce when I’m in LA and at the Bellagio when I’m in Vegas. I’ll probably play the bigger tourneys, but I need to get back into grind mode for awhile.  I haven’t had the stamina to play the twenty and thirty-hour sessions, but I have felt better playing for ten or twelve hours at a time. I want to be sure I’m sharp and at my best, as I think the play has improved at the stakes I’m playing at.

I don’t want to promise that I’ll keep my blog up more here at LizLieu.net, but I promise it won’t be two months again until the next post. In fact, check back here as I hope to have a post up later this week from Vegas. Keep checking out my posts at PokerListings.com. Keep up the comments everywhere. I really love hearing from everyone.

Well, it’s been a great couple of weeks for me since I posted here last.  Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you’ve followed me on PokerListings as well as everywhere else you find poker news.

I’ve been mixing tournaments with cash games at the Bellagio.  I had my first WSOP cash this year (28th in the $2.5k NLHE event).  I played really well, but I would have loved to take down that bracelet (the $666,697 for first wouldn’t hurt either!).  So many pros going deep.  The bracelets are staying in the pro ranks, both the old-timers and the young studs.  There aren’t nearly as many soft spots as there have been in the past.  I guess the number of players is still as strong as last year, but the quality seems to be much deeper.  It is rare to not recognize someone at your table, unless you take a seat at a $1.5k NLHE donkament!

Cash games are going great for me.  Seven sessions:  one small loss, one break-even, and five winning sessions.  That is the plan, to win big and minimize the losing sessions.  The games have finally started to get a bit bigger at the Bellagio.  I played two sessions of $400/800, one with a $100 ante at Nick Shulman’s suggestion.  It included Hansu, Greg Mueller, Van Diesel, Jenifer Harman, Eddie Ting, and Minh Ly.  That group will definitely keep you on your toes, and it was nice to rack up more chips than I sat down with at a table like that.

I also got away from poker a bit.  I did some shopping at the Caesar’s stores (I miss, miss, miss shopping!).  They still remember me there, even though I’ve been gone basically for a year.  I had Zach, my PA, and one of his friends Alvin in town.  I think they had a great time—good food, seeing a show.  Vegas done right!  He and Alvin are sweethearts, and it was great to spend some time with them.

I also had my girlfriends in town from LA.  Seven hotties out on the town, taking the night by storm!  It was a crazy night, one big girls party.  I kept drinking Red Bull while they drank whatever they had that looked pretty similar to Red Bull (but with a different kick).  One of my girlfriends picked up the tab (we never ever let boys pay for things—GIRL POWER!).  Anyways, the girls chose to party at The Bank, one of the hot night clubs at Bellagio in Vegas, and the bill for the seven of us came out to $8600.  So my girlfriend asked what we tip. I told her it’s up to her, and she left $800 for the waitress and $400 was tipped to the busboys earlier in the night already.

So the waitress comes back with a response it’s not enough, that we needed to leave at least 10-20%.  I really have never had anyone come back with a tip and say it wasn’t enough. I thought it was outrageous. We ended up just laughing it off and leaving her $1000.

I missed being out with my girlfriends, just laughing and not thinking about anything.  This past year has been a year away from that, twelve months of being alone for the most part.  I’m not used to it, and I really loved being there with all my friends.

I’ll be playing a few more events before the Main Event, so keep checking here or PokerListings to see how I’m doing. I’m physically feeling great, so my sickness is behind me.  That and my friends are keeping me at my best, and I hope I can get even further at my next WSOP Event.  Ciao!