WSOP 2008 - Get Your Drink On!

You or your buddy have just won a WSOP Bracelet! Hooray! Awesome! It's time to celebrate and blow some of that cash you won. The only decision left is how to blow the largest amount of money in the most efficient way possible on some top quality booze! Anybody can go into a night club and order up several bottles of booze for hundreds of dollars a piece but you just won a bracelet it's time to step up your infrared contactlenses game.
Depending on how much cash you cleared for your win, you might want to take it easy and start off with the cheap stuff. You might be hungry as well, so it's time to head over to The Seablue Restaurant at MGM Grand. There you can find delicious Mediterranean fare to dig into. All of the meat and fish is flown in fresh daily and the menu is comprehensive. When it comes time to order the beverage, go for The Seablue Martini. At $275 a pop, it's quite a bargain compared to some of the drinks we'll be getting to. It's made from premium vodka and the finest Beluga caviar. The vodka makes it extra smooth and the caviar makes it extra chunky.

No fish eggs in my drink please!?!? If you're not ready to make the jump to include salty, oily, fish flavored orbs in your drinks, then head over to The Capital Grille at the Fashion Show Mall. They make amazing steaks there from the finest dry aged cuts of cow. Make sure to order the 20 oz New York Strip. A steak that could be confused for a brick, the thickness of the cut allows them cook it with a nice juicy warm red center. Medium rare only please. If you like your steak any other way (besides rare), go get yourself a salad before you go and stick to the drinks.
Their most expensive beverage here is the $1,000 High Roller Martini. This one isn't as decadent as some of the other drinks. You get a good martini made from top shelf booze, a diamond pave ring, and $500 from the purchase price goes to Share our Strength - a charity that helps feed the hungry. Keep the good Karma going and help someone out from across the world as you stuff your face with succulent steak and premium vodka.

Who has time to eat? Let's just get our drink on! You can put a little bit of a dent in your wallet by bypassing the food and heading straight over to Body English at The Hard Rock for some $1,000 martinis. No charity work here, the cash goes straight into the Casinos' coffers. The crowds are usually massive and it's a total free for all. Be ready to fight your way to the front of the line and, for goodness' sake, flash some cash! No need to be stuck outside with the commoners, you have some drinking to do!
Once inside order The Presidential. Yet another martini (do you see a trend developing here?), it's made with Dom Perignon Champagne and Remy Martin Louis XIII cognac. Get on over there and drop off few giesels on some yak and bubbly.

Not tickling your fancy yet? Maybe you're one of those people that comes from a country famous for their long winter nights, tight jeans, and blonde hair. Perhaps you might feel more comfortable within the confines of The Teatro Euro Bar. There you'll be able to show off your giant stainless steel watches while sipping on $2,200 martinis. The most complicated drink broached thus far, they come with Louis Roederer Champagne, Hardy Perfection Cognac, Grand Marnier Cent Cinquantenaire, and fresh raspberries. Don't bother remembering all the ingredients, just order the High Limit Kir Royale juice cards.

Forget the cheap stuff. You want to cut all the corners and blow as much money as possible in the shortest amount of time. The best way to accomplish this is to hop into the largest limo you can find and tell them to take you to Tryst, the nightclub at the Wynn. $3,000 bucks a pop for this one, it's the most expensive drink you can order off of a Cocktail Menu in Vegas.
The drink is made with Cristal Rose, Hennessy Ellipse, and Grand Marnier Cent-cinquantenaire. Just to add a little flair, and a few hundred dollars to the price, they will also drop 23 karat gold flakes and a liquid gold syrup in it that will make it look more like a car paint than a drink. No matter what it looks like, they give you a golden straw with a 9 point diamond to sip from (that you get to keep) and they say it's delicious. A word of advice, don't go and order this drink if it's just you and two other dudes. In order to do this one right you must keep a two girl to one guy ratio. It's called the Menage a Trois.

So there you have it, the best way to blow the most amount of money on booze as quickly as possible. Five drinks apiece for you and nine of your closest friends can cost you anywhere from $14,000 to $150,000 gratuity not included. Also not included is the price to transport yourselves from place to place. So win a bracelet, go out, blow some cash, and for one night know what it's feel like to be a true balla!

Enjoying the Moment

Spring is in the air and we all should be just about ready to shake off that winter gloom.
Regardless of whether you're feeling down on poker or on life in general, it always seems to happen around this time of year.
I don't know about you, but I'm in need of doing a little spring cleaning myself. It's time to be happy, healthy and enjoy every minute of life. I'm going to take the next few weeks to blog about what steps I'm taking and what you can do to recharge your batteries before the WSOP rolls back into town.
Lately I've noticed a lot of poker players feeling run down and sick of the beats. They constantly talk of how bad they are running and yet they stay in the poker room - or worse, multi-table online all day and night.
Very few really take the time to reset and relax and then come back to play with a better attitude. Look at how well you are playing and forget about the bad luck
infrared contactlenses.
What I'm getting at is the World Series of Poker is right around the corner, with just 90 days before the first event. What tournament is more important to you as a player? Is it worth beating yourself up over online play or circuit events?
Now is the time to get ready for what counts. You have three months to get yourself ready to win a bracelet.
Here's one suggestion: With all the traveling we get to do, why not make it a point to have fun no matter what in the next poker tournament you play in? Why not give yourself a little break for happiness before the seven weeks of WSOP take their toll on you?
Having fun can be interpreted in many ways, so I'll put it this way:
You have to take in the experience of enjoyment. Soak up every bit. Be grateful for everything you have and every minute of life. And enjoy the moment!
Try and think back to when poker was fun. Think of the first poker tournament you played in. Look how far you've come from that point. Be proud of that.
I'd like to use Vancouver as my example on how to make the most when you're on the tournament trail. Last week I talked about the River Rock and how much I love going there. I wouldn't have those feelings if it was just a great resort to go to marked cards lenses.
It's the memories I made while I was there that will always bring me back. I'm grateful for every moment shared with friends and times of personal growth as a poker player and human being.
If you're lucky enough to play in a city as beautiful as Vancouver, then you probably won't have a hard time having fun. With the mountains, ocean and downtown city life there is plenty to do.
If you're stuck in Indiana, well you might need to improvise. Regardless of what there is to do, I have a few suggestions to help make your tournament a memorable one.
On my first trip to Vancouver I walked into the poker room at the River Rock. A beautiful and charismatic woman by the name of Alex Lee Behan walked up and introduced herself.
She had scheduled me and Johnny Chan to meet with members of the media to talk about the seminar we would be holding for Rush to Win.
Check back next week where I'll continue. And if you feel like hearing more on my spring cleaning, check my daily blog at www.laceypoker.com.
Bonne Chance,
Lacey

Poker Roulette, Main Event-Style

In the game of Roulette, you put all your chips on one number - and if you hit it, you're flying, and if you miss it, you're crying. In the game of the WSOP Main Event Poker Roulette, picking your player is the same game.
I put all my chips on Dario Minieri to win it big this year, and as of this afternoon at approximate 1300 hours, an all-in on a flush draw destroyed my hopes
marked card tricks.
Yes, the scarf-wearing, Porsche-driving, super-aggressive poker Italiano has gone home because he just didn't get good cards. That really is the reason. Because he'll play any cards, and these ones were just no good.
So that means I must pick some new hopefuls if I am to stay in the game of Poker Roulette. The first time I went for a wildcard, so this time I'm gonna base my predictions on something else: Who has the best hair. Ah, just kidding.
First, let's start with the former World Champions. I always enjoy following these guys during the days, as they have the "been there, done that" status that seems to make them a bit more laid-back when they play. But it also makes them want something else: A reclamation of glory.
We started off the day with two World Champions standing. Scotty Nguyen took the title home in 1998, and two years before in 1996, Huck Seed took the money. Unfortunately, Huck busted out not long ago so that makes my champion pick pretty easy marked poker.
Pick #1: The Former Champ, Scotty Nguyen
Based on his performance at the World Series this year, he would be the natural choice. He placed 10th in the Pot-Limit Omaha/Seven-Card Stud Event, 4th in the $1,000 Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo Event, and 2nd, after Eli Elezra, in the $3,000 Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo Event. He's cashed over $200,000 already, and he is guaranteed at least $106,382 in the Main Event as well.
Pick #2: The Charitable Player, Kirk Morrison
Kirk Morrison is also holding chips with $900,000 to his name right now. He's one of my favorites for a different reason: Karma.
He won his way to the Main Event by playing in a charity tournament, and is planning to give 5% of his winnings back to charity. That means that if he wins first prize, he will be donating $412,500 of his $8.25 million to a good cause.
So far this year at the WSOP, he's cashed five times, with his total winnings amounting to about $90K. His best finish was 7th place in the very first event of the series - $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em World Championship, taking home $63,591.
Pick #3: The Internet Guy, Hevad Khan
He busted out the mighty Humberto Brenes today, and was sitting at the featured table. He has cashed twice so far this year at the World Series, but his winnings have only amounted to about $20,000.
Though the 2007 WSOP hasn't been too eventful for him, he is a favorite with the crowd because of his crazy poker antics. He's quite well-known for a video that shows him simultaneously playing 26 tables of poker.
Pick #4: The Professional, Gus Hansen
So many people keep saying, "Wouldn't it be great if a pro won it this year?"
Well, yeah that would be great, but with so many no-name players in the field and all this new internet blood, the chances of that happening are not very high.
However, Gus Hansen has been doing pretty well the last few days. He came into the tournament today with over a million in chips but has fallen to just over half a million. In the elevator at the Palms some guy asked me, "How's Gus doing?"
When I told him he was one of the chip leaders a couple days ago, the guy's face lit up like I'd just told him Tupac was alive. Gus has a way with the public, and a lot of people are rooting for him to win.
Pick #5: The Bracelet Winner, Alex Kravchenko
He's won a bracelet this year already, and he can be seen very often in the final stages of the events he plays. This guy looks serious, plays serious, and he's serious competition.
Alex Kravchenko came into the game today with about $2.3 million in chips, and is up to $3,030,000. He doesn't look like he's going anywhere, and we're happy about that. Though he doesn't speak much English, he's a dear to interview and very personable. Even if he looks like a Russian mobster.
* * * * * * * * * * *
So there are my top five picks for the 2007 WSOP Main Event. Don't let me down, guys, not like Dario did. Play well, play hard. Make me some money. (Kidding again, I have no money on any of them…)

Venetian $5k and Vegas Shopping Spree

Editor's note: Matt "ADZ124" Marafioti is the newest PokerListings.com blogger and he'll be updating us on his life as a young poker millionaire right here on the PokerListings Blog.
A few more quick thoughts: The napt venetian $5k, wee I had a piece of Tom Marchese aka 1st place finisher, boo i suck for finishing 70^th.
Yay for 5th live tourney marked poker cash in a row, 22 blinds left, 8 handed table, utg + 1 makes it 18,400 at 8/16k one caller and I'm in small blind with 99. I make it 42,400 and he goes all in for another 135,000.
I had about 125 left or so and tank-called off my stack and saw the bad news that he had KK. Thoughts on this play? I feel I overplayed the nines considering the number of people left in the tournament and maybe even underestimated the under the gun raiser.
I'd like to say lesson learned but I'm sure I'll make the same mistake again in the future, as in poker we often repeat our mistakes many times before correcitng them if ever.
I dunno how most poker players live, but I'm one of the few fortunate enough to get driven around vegas in a rolls, smoking on fine green herbs and stay in the tower suite this entire month.
Anyways, gonna go party and get drunk cuz its my bday, maybe get a room at the roosevelt hotel tonight and just skip the highrollers tommorow... we will see...
I wish that they had a pokerstars bank at every casino, I hate losing $15k in a cash game and not being able to reload, online I can lose whatever i want in peace ... annnd done venting 
- Matt Marafioti

Not Enough Poker! Courtney Gee Poker Update

Last week was horrible as far as poker volume was concerned, which is ironic considering the post I wrote on May 4^th about discipline. I ended up playing just two days of poker … pretty disappointing.
As far as I can see, it appears that there are two reactions to having a good week. Some easy cards tricks players get really motivated and want to make even more money as soon as possible, so they’re eager to grind again. Other players feel like they’ve done a good job and therefore they can take it easy for a bit.
I guess I fall into the second category. Even though the previous week wasn’t exceptional, it was still a solid winning week. I think I am guilty of subconsciously taking it easy because I know I had a good week. It’s almost like I’m thinking, “This next week doesn’t matter much because I already won money last week.
This is obviously a terrible attitude to have, even if it is subconscious. I'm going to work very hard to avoid this reaction in the future.
On a related topic (sort of), I recently had a conversation with a lady that runs her own business doing hair and makeup. I told her what I do for a living, and I was really surprised when she said, “You must have weeks where you have tons of money and then other weeks where you have to eat just mac and cheese.”
We then proceeded to talk about the importance of managing money. Just because you make a bunch of money one day, it doesn’t mean you can go on a big shopping spree the next day. If you do that every time you have a big score, you really will be eating mac and cheese a few months down the road once you go on a downswing.
She understood all this because the nature of her work has her making most of her money during the wedding season. She makes piles of money in the summer and then sometimes goes days in the winter without any income juice cards. In this way, grinding MTTs is like running your own business. You never know when the next big score is coming, so you have to plan ahead and save just in case it doesn’t come for a while.
Anyway, here are the (small) numbers from last week:
# MTTs: 54
Average buy-in: $37.53 (bigger than usual because one of the days I played was a Sunday)
Hours: 15.5
Net result: +$191.73
I won a 180 tournament, which is why I squeaked out a small profit. And speaking of 180s, PokerStars (once again) shows how much they listen to their players. Since I last wrote, they have fixed both the structure and the buy-ins of their 180 tournaments. I should have known that I had nothing to worry about :)
Until next week, good luck at the tables!

PLO for the First Time

I was really looking forward to the WSOP Event 5: $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha, which was my first live PLO event.

Since I never read structure sheets even though I should, I didn't realize that they had a unique structure for the event.

Instead of just starting with your normal stack of three times the buy in, 4,500 in this case, you started with 1,500 chips at 25/50 with two "bullets." These are $5 tournament chips that represent two rebuys that you can take at any time during the first three levels regardless of chip count.

If you don't use them by then, you still receive 1,500 for each bullet after level three.

After I was done thinking about how badly I'm going to miss "real" rebuys tournaments, which have been eliminated from the WSOP schedule completely, it was time to figure our what my strategy should be here.
Normally in no-limit rebuy/add-on tournaments, even cubed (one rebuy, one add-on) tournaments, my strategy is to take all the rebuy and add-on I can at any given time.
However, due to my relative inexperience and the nature of PLO, I decided to take the cautious route and try to gamble one bullet at a time.

I ended up losing the first marked cards stack with top two against Eric Cajelais' straight draw with a flush draw. I started to chip up slowly to about 10k with one bullet left after that. In a limped-gone-crazy pot, I had A♥ 9♥ 7♣ 7♦ in the big blind on a 8h-6h-3d flop, and ended up getting it in against 5♥ 7♥ 6♣ 2♠ and A♣ 8♣ 6♣ 2♣.

After the Ad turn and 9s river, I lost the main pot but won a sidepot to almost break even. Now that I think about it, almost breaking even is a really boring story that I could have just skipped. Oh well, but look at how spicy that flop was for me!!! Drawing to the clean nuts with so many cards...

I also busted a PLO bracelet winnner, Alan Smurfit. Since poker is an easy game, I decided that not only was I going to cooler his K♠ K♣ 8♠ 6♣ with AdA♥ 10♣ 7♥, but I was also going to fade a flush draw and a king after a very unpleasant 4♠ 3♠ 4♣ flop. Eaaaaaaasy game...

I managed to keep crusing with a pretty healthy stack for most of the tournament, despite my relative inexperience in PLO. That is, of course, until I tried tried to run my first big bluff of the tournament. I gave up after taising preflop and firing two shells on the flop and turn, and was pretty shocked to see my opponent turn over second pair with no draw!

That's a reasonable hero call in hold'em, but in PLO...just wow...I got pretty owned there I guess easy cards tricks...

I managed to make it into the money and into day two with a pretty short stack, and ended up getting it in with J♥ 9♥ 9♦ 8♦ against Q♠ Q♦ 7♠ 4♣ and whiffing a flush draw. I finished 64th out of 809 entrants for $3,247.

Normally I'd be disappointed with a similar finish in a hold'em event, I'm actually kind of proud of myself for cashing in my first live PLO tournament given my relative inexperience in the game.
I really enjoyed myself in this tournament and it was a great learning experience. I think you may see me taking more shots at PLO in the future...

But for now it's time to get back to some NL. Another tournament which I'm really excited about is coming up, Event 9: $1,500 NL six-handed. The fields for the $1,500 events are pretty weak since they're some of the smallest buy in events, and the shorthanded play magnifies their leaks and lets you play more pots with them. Should be a blast!

And congratulations to fellow PL.com blogger, a bona-fide sicko, and a buddy of mine, Jason Mercier who just took down the $1,500 PLO to add to the list of EPT events his crushed for huge scores. Ship the bracelet J-Merc-All-Star, now you can stop complaining that you don't know how to win in the USA!!!

--Matt Stout
"All In At 420"

No More Bubbles! Heater Time! Ship the $1K!

"Pokah's nice. I loves play pokah." --Chau Giang

OK, well, sometimes I do! I won't get into detail because I have yet to tell the stories from London, but I've been doing a lot of bubbling lately ...money bubbles in big events, final table bubbles in online donkaments, etc.

Well I finally managed to marked cards come through in the clutch (and be a huge lucksack) this week!

First I took down the $10k guaranteed $55 tournament on Lock. While it was on the smaller side, it had been a while since I'd had an outright win in any MTT. Sometimes a little push like that is all you need to get the ball rolling again.

And roll it did. On Monday night I did something that I've been trying to do for a lonnnnnnnnnnnng time: ship Tilt's Monday night $1k buy-in.
It's one of the toughest tournaments online, and the top spot has eluded me for my entire career. My best finishes came in back-to-back weeks about two years ago when they first started running the tournament, finishing 4th and 3rd.
I had a decent stack for the majority of the tournament, but was never one of the chip leaders. I was somewhat short as we approached the money, but I doubled up just before we hit the bubble infrared contactlenses and never looked back.
Looking back, this may have been the win that I'm proudest of despite the fact that it's not my biggest score (this was ~$86k, while the Sunday 500 win netted me ~$105k).
There were a few key hands that I was especially happy with how I played. I went with my reads on a lot of hands when I had nothing, and fortunately I was correct almost every time...it doesn't usually work that way for EVERY hand deep in a tournament.
I picked up another win the following evening in the new Lock Poker $20k guaranteed $162. The tournament has a great structure, terrible players, and pretty good payouts. They've revamped their entire nightly schedule and it's becoming more and more juicy by the day.
Anyway, it feels really good to be "in the zone" again and playing some of the best poker of my life. I was on the worst downswing of my life, totaling about $220k. Now nearly $100k of that has melted away and I'm back on track and feeling great!!!
Matt Stout

Battle of Malta Day 2: Show Us the Money

It’s Day 2 of the enormous 2013 Battle of Malta and it’s all about smashing the money bubble today and hopefully getting close to a final table.
Getting to a final table may prove fairly difficult, if not impossible, as there are still 251 players in the tournament.
That’s what happens when you have an astounding 888 entries. Prizepool hasn't been announced yet but expect 80,000 euros up top.
Yesterday Norwegian Roar Aspås made a late-night charge to the top of the chip counts and finished with 275,400. That’s enough to put Day 1a chip leader Dario Amato in third place with 247,400.
The marked cards poker gods weren’t kind to some of the big-name poker pros we had gathered here yesterday as Dan Cates, Kara Scott, Sam Holden and Pierre Neuville were all eliminated.
That leaves Sofia Lovgren, Naoya Kihara and Lauri Pesonen to carry the pro torch here on Day 2.
We just heard the shuffle up and deal so that means we are once again live from Malta.
Here are the top 10 chip leaders to start the day:

• 1. Roar Aspas - 275,000
• 2. Mariano D'Aquila - 261,000
• 3. Dario Amato - 247,400
• 4. Omar Pisano - 221,400
• 5. Jack Salter - 214,800
• 6. Federico Petruzzelli - 207,800
• 7. Valerio Failla - 203,500
• 8. Marco Bognanni - 196,300
• 9. Fredric Hallner - 195,300
• 10. Ove Andre Stenberg - 194,000

Average Stack

70,757

Players Left

251