Diary of a Poker Diva - Liz Lieu

Feeling very much like a bird with all the traveling and flying I have done in the past couple of weeks—from the US to Saigon to Phuket to Macau…so far.

As you know, I started my travels by leaving the US in late July and headed to Saigon to do some charity work. I left Saigon and flew to Phuket on the 13th to spend a few days with good friends relaxing and getting “inked”. Those were my two main reasons for traveling to Phuket.

While I was there, I stayed in a beautiful villa overlooking the ocean at the Trisara Resorts with four good friends who also got their own separate villas. The first night we got there, we all decided it would be best to just check into our rooms and enjoy a nice quiet dinner at the Resort. We talked, laughed, and joked as only close friends can do and called it an early night so we could start on our short, yet very much needed vacation, the next morning. And that is exactly what we did.

We did not want to waste any time and woke up early to have some fun and relaxation in the sun, water and spa! My friends went swimming in their amazing private pools while I worked on my tan. All my friends had made plans to head down to Patong later in the evening to have dinner and do some evening sightseeing, While I had other special plans in mind that I wanted to do …

I have been waiting to get another tattoo for over a year now and I finally got the chance to get it done the way I really wanted it done. I wanted to get another meaningful tattoo using the art of bamboo tattooing. I found an excellent tattoo artist who’s won a first place award and took down the title “Best Bamboo Artist” in Phuket. So I immediately scheduled an appointment with him to have my latest artwork done. Luckily for me, he wasn’t busy that night and had agreed to come to the resort I was staying at and did the artwork in my Spa room.

Choosing to get “inked” in the traditional way by using a bamboo stick, I got the words “Om Mani Pädme Hum” written in Tibetan script across my right shoulder blade.

“Om Mani Pädme Hum” is easy to say yet quite powerful in meaning. It contains the essence of the entire teaching. When you say the first syllable “Om” it is blessed to help you achieve perfection in the practice of generosity, “Ma” helps perfect the practice of pure ethics, and “Ni” helps achieve perfection in the practice of tolerance and patience. “Päd”, the fourth syllable, helps to achieve perfection of perseverance, “Me” helps achieve perfection in the practice of concentration, and the final sixth syllable “Hum” helps achieve perfection in the practice of wisdom.

This tattoo has so much meaning for me because those are the aspects and vurtures in life I want to try my best to be perfect in. This tattoo is a reminder to myself of how I want to be and how I want to always live my life. It is now forever embedded into my skin so my eyes will never forget the vurtues I want to see in myself. With that being said, This will be my last tattoo because I believe all tattoos have significant meaning to the person getting it and each new tattoo, for me, has always had a much more significant meaning then the last and I don’t think I will ever find another tattoo that will have more significance to me and my sprituality then “Om Mani Pädme Hum”.

The next morning we rented a Crunchy 47′ yacht (Spirit of Baloo) for the day so we could all just chill out and enjoy the beautiful scenery from the waters. I even talked my friends into letting me navigate for a little bit and I felt very much like the “Skipper” even though I was told I looked more like “Ginger” at the helm of the boat then the “Skipper”. All I have to say to that is, “Hey, at least my 9 hour tour didn’t land all of us on a deserted island!” HaHa! JK!

After a full day of touring the island, I was able to relax for one more day and then I was off to Macau for the APT Celebrity Charity event and Main Event. I’m feeling lucky and I’m so ready to win!!! I will let you all know how the tournament turns out and fill you in on all of the festivities tonight is sure to bring in my next blog.

Wish me luck!

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.