"Compton, Long Beach, Inglewoooood"

Today's blog update comes to you live from a comfortable desk chair at the Ramada Limited Suites in El Segundo, California.

Friday, I had a 9:00am appointment at the Federal Building here in Los Angeles to apply for and pick up my passport. The process was quick and smooth, and I was out of the building and headed for the Bicycle Club casino before 9:15. I soon found myself in a ridiculous -- I'm told typical -- California no-limit game. The blinds were $5 and $5, and the action was massive. There were plenty of $500 raises and $1,500 re-raises. One guy in particular was driving the play, but the whole table was perched on the brink of going busto in any given hand. The biggest pot I won happened immediately after I came back to the table from a quick stretch break. I posted the $10 to come in out of turn, and looked down at [T][J] off-suit. I got to see a cheap multi-way flop, and it came down [7][8][9] rainbow. Welcome back. The first player to act bet all in for his last $30. Two players called in front of me, and I flat called with a hammer lock on the pot. The player behind me was pushy, and after thinking for about three minutes, he said, "Two hundred." I managed to keep myself seated motionless untill the action came back around to me. I counted out my stack and moved all in for another $180 or so on top. My opponent sighed and groaned and muttered and I sat like a statue, afraid of doing that wrong thing that might incline him to fold. Finally, he did make the call, and when the board ran out rags, I triumphantly showed down the winning nuts. The hand pretty much played itself, and I ended up stacking two people and pulling in about $900 or so in chips. I found myself on the winning end of a few other pots and walked to the cashier with just short of two full racks of red (yellow) chips, showing a profit of $680 on my $300 buy-in.

I went and booked a room at the Best Western Inn & Suites in Inglewood, grabbed a shower and a shave, and headed back out. Casino number two on the list to visit was Hollywood Park, and it was conveniently located near my hotel (in the ghetto). I headed over there about 8:00pm, and my first impressions weren't particularly positive. I guess it was just an unusual poker environment for me. The room is massive; I would guess about 80 tables or so. When I got into my game, I was handed a rack of the worst chips I have ever played with. They were both slippery and sticky in equal measure. Impossible to shuffle, and I made a fool of myself a couple times trying to unstick the chips from each other to count out a proper bet. Literally the worst chips I've ever seen. The table was friendly though, unlike my cards. I was on an endless string of [8][3] and [9][2]. It wasn't the game to bluff in either, and I ended up donating two buy-ins, giving back $400 of my profit from earlier in the day.

Saturday, I slept in for a long time before rousing myself and heading out aimlessly. I drove north for a while through Venice and Santa Monica. I went as far as the Santa Monica Pier before the crowds and the traffic sent me puttering back to the highway and into Los Angeles proper. Dallas and his lovely (read: hot) wife Amanda invited me over for dinner, and I found their place in Westchester, back along the route I had taken earlier in the day. They are a great couple, and they have the three most beautiful children in all the land, Sam, Maya, and "Beanie". They are also in the process of adopting a fourth child, one from Thailand I believe it is. Dallas and I grilled some steaks to perfection, and Amanda made an amazing salad and cornbread. There was also some fresh pineapple, one of my very favorite fruits to eat fresh. It was capped off with an ice cream cone topped with M&M's, which the kids very much enjoyed wearing.

After dinner, Dallas and I headed back to Hollywood Park to avenge my losses from the previous evening. We sat down at the same table and grinded away for a few hours. Things went south for Dallas, and he got stuck a couple buy-ins -- a little worse than I had done the night before, but not much. I somehow managed to climb into two-rack territory, and cashed out a profit of about $600.

I had every intention of staying to play in Dallas' home game tomorrow night, but as I reconsider, I realize that I have to get back to Vegas tonight. I am headed back east on Wednesday, and I still have tons of loose ends to tie up before I depart. With apologies to Dallas, I am about to load up my gear and hit the road for Sin City. Los Angeles was a blast, and I'll be back soon. California Promises.

Come Monday
It'll be all right
Come Monday
I'll be holdin' you tight
I spent four lonely days
In a brown L.A. haze
And I just want you back by my side

A Moment of Gratitude

I want to take just a quick moment to acknowledge the passing of a wonderful summer. It is a rare thing for me when work and fun come together in such perfect unison, but my job this season has managed to strike a balance between the two and surpass all of my expectations. The whole process was an incredibly rewarding experience that did miraculous things for my state of mind. Heading in, I was in dire need of a change of scenery and a change of direction, and this summer accomplished both of those goals emphatically. The aforementioned work and fun were both present in quantities that I would not have anticipated going into the Series. As I look back to the start of it all, I can still just barely remember the feelings of uncertainty and speculation I had as I began my job. It wasn't long though before I adjusted to the style and pace of what was required of me and settled into my role on the team. It quickly became routine, almost habit, and I was perfectly at home sitting in my chair of observation on the rail.

I'd like to thank the entire PokerNews staff for making this summer one that I will look back on with a fondness for a long time. My three bosses -- John, Garry, and Chris -- were constantly accessible and eager to do anything in their power to make things run smoothly for myself and the others. I only hope that my performance was up to their expectations, because their leadership and directing was well-ahead of what I anticipated. It was an absolute joy to work for these fine people, and I hope that our cooperative relationship continues well into the future.

The rest of the PokerNews gang was equally enjoyable to be around. When you spend 16 hours a day with a small group of people, it can be difficult to keep things interesting and stay clear of each others' increasingly sleep-deprived tempers. With just one exception, I think I got along with everyone and conjured up some friendships that figure to be long-lasting. We had our share of stresses and strains, understandable considering the fast-paced work environment we were dealing with. But those people were also responsible for some truly great times, both inside and out of the Amazon Room. The combination of the right place and the right people made for one fantastic ride.

As the clock on my first WSOP runs out, I am already looking forward to the next one, and the chance to spend some more time with my new extended family.

Blog Like it's Your Job

Don't say I didn't warn you that this blog would be neglected.

Once again I return to patch the wounds of my oft-ignored personal space here in HTTPville. Fortunately for me, I update this blog about as often as someone reads it, so it works out pretty well in the end. The fact of the matter is I've been almost as busy since the WSOP ended as I was when I was working six 16-hour days a week. And there's another reason for my neglect of late. The first few of my days off were spent entirely in bed fighting off vicious cold number two during the span of the last 30 days. This one has been hanging on for more than a week now and it is making my sinuses absolutely miserable.

So, let's see, where do we pick up the tale?

Ah yes, Tiffany Michelle. During and after Tiffany's impressive run in the Main Event, a storm of controversy stirred up around her like a tornado, and it left her on the outs with PokerNews and UltimateBet haters everywhere. It basically revolved around her sponsorship with PokerNews, her backer and employer at the time. At some point early in the tournament, she accepted a sponsorship from UltimateBet without consulting her primary sponsor, and that began a tidal wave of overreaction and ill speak. I'll spare you the details, but if you're interested in the story, you can read about it here or here or here, as well as Tiffany's rebuttal here.

On Friday the 11th, I played the $540 Venetian Deep Stack, and was absolutely kicking ass. We began with 15,000 chips, and by the end of the fourth level, I had over 67,000 and was on the warpath through my table. When we go back from the second break, our table broke, and suddenly I caught the above-mentioned cold. Just *snap* like that. I stood up, my eyes were watering, I had chills and cold sweats, a headache, blurry vision, achy back... It was insufferable. Within no time flat, I was out of the tournament and home in bed for 72 hours. Awful, so bummed about that blown opportunity.

The next few days were spent alternating chugging water and cold medicine, one after the other after the other. Then I had to get the house cleaned up and my gear packed to move out. Saturday night was my last night in the place, and it sure was a fine place to call home for eight weeks.

Along the way, I bid farewell to Slippers, Tim, Dane, Christian, Heath, and their other Aussie pals who are headed back down under to resume their so-called normal lives. I'm sure I'll see those crazy people around this time next year, and I hope to maybe bump into them somewhere prior to that as well.

A few days ago -- they are still all running together for me -- us PokerNews'ers spent the day at Garry's playing Wii and poker and drinking a toast to ourselves. The nighttime lack of sobriety brought a trip to the karaoke bar, which is one of my least favorite places to be in all the world. In fact, given the choice between an evening in a karaoke bar and a stiff punch in the nuts, it would have to be settled by a coin toss. In any event, we headed to a place called the Aloha Kitchen & Bar, an establishment that is about as Hawaiian as a polar bear. It turned out to be a great night though, thanks in part to copious amounts of alcohol. I got a fantastic bowl of teriyaki chicken for $4 and had many a beer and cocktail to wash it down. By the end of the night, even I was on the microphone making a fool of myself with the rest of the crew.

Close to leaving time, Bryan "The Icon" Micon, his girlfriend, and Bret "Gank" Jungblut came loping into the Aloha to shoot some pool. Apparently, they are good friends with "Macon" Marc Hodge, one of us lowly reporters. Marc and his girlfriend are real good people, and Catherine is a damn fine poker player to boot. The night concluded with the six of us heading over to the Palms do to a little gambling. I was in for $500 at the blackjack table before I managed to claw my way back to exactly even after about four hours. It was a good time, and it improved my impressions of Micon a great deal; his girlfriend is a sweetheart too. I promised her I wouldn't post their picture here on the interwebs, but they make a cute couple. Speaking of cute couples:

Gank and Micon

So, I think that pretty much gets us caught up to today. At this very moment, I am in Reno hanging out with Glenn, one of my original poker buddies. We have a damn good time playing limit hold'em in the shithole casinos around here and just shooting the shit. His fiancée Evynne is a doll, and they are both very hospitable and accommodating to me when I am in town. I head back to Vegas on Wednesday to spend one more week in the City of Sin.

I'm-uguay, Uruguay, We're All-uguay

I just got some much-anticipated news from the boss-man, Garry Gates.

I have a new assignment for PokerNews. On August 6th, I am headed to Punta del Este, Uruguay to cover the Latin American Poker Tour event there. It is a $2,500-buy-in tournament that should be populated by a number of the PokerStars pros. It is being held at the lovely-looking Mantra Resort Spa Casino, and I sincerely hope PokerNews springs for a room right on-site for me; the place looks incred.

That is all well and good, but being that it is my first trip outside of the continent, I am still without a passport. My birth certificate is on a plane headed towards me right now so that I can drive to Los Angeles and get that taken care of. Then, I am in Reno for a couple days, back to Las Vegas for a couple more, then home to North Carolina for the first time in two months. A couple of boring days later, I am headed down below the equator to cover the LAPT event by myself. It should be interesting, fun, and a lot of work -- and I am looking forward to it more than I can describe in text form.

Tiffany Michelle Eliminated in 17th Place ($334,534)

Just after I wrote that last blog post, Tiffany Michelle was eliminated from the Main Event. She called me her "lucky blogger" when I was covering her for PokerNews on Day 2 and 3, but it appears I have signed her death certificate with my own blog just minutes ago. Congratulations on a very impressive run, Ms. Michelle.

You can read Gary Wise's write-up about her here.

A Word About Tiffany Michelle

Of all the notable plot lines coming out of this year's Main Event, perhaps none is as intriguing or unexpected as the story of Tiffany Michelle. Tiffany is an actress and musician by trade, and currently she is employed by PokerNews as our video interviewer. In the past week though, she has traded in her microphone for a big stack of poker chips. She remains alive with 21 players (and counting) left in the Main Event, and has been the last lady standing for more than a full day's worth of play now, following Lisa Parsons' elimination in 76th place. This represents an accomplishment that is hard to overstate for Tiffany, who has no prior tournament winnings of any note.

Tiffany found herself sitting on chips right from the get-go, and by the end of Day 1, she had managed to tiptoe through the minefield and work her way up just shy of the 50,000 mark. She came out of the gate at a full gallop on Day 2 as well, climbing over 120,000 chips in the first couple hours of play. She took a big hit midway through the day though, when she got tangled up with Tony Antonious.

With the blinds 300/600, A player raised to 2,000 preflop, and Tony called. Action came around to Tiffany, and she re-raised it up to 10,000. The raiser folded, but Tony came along to the flop. It came out . Tony led out with a bet of 16,000, and Tiffany moved all in having her opponent covered. Tony put in his last 65,000 chips, and the hands were shown down.

Antonious:
Michelle:

Tony was well behind and at risk of elimination, but he wasn't ready to leave just yet. The turn was the and the river brought the to make him a full house, tens full of queens. Tiffany was fuming mad, and made it clear to Tony: "How could you call?!" Tony pointed out that he had flopped a flush draw, but Tiffany wasn't buying it: "I made it 10,000 preflop!" Tony, who had already been given a warning for excessive celebration, responded by showing her a photo of his house in Florida and suggesting they should both go fishing after the tournament was over.

That loss bumped Tiffany down to 24,000 chips, and a short time later, she found herself whittled all the way down to just 8,000 with the blinds at 400/800. She hung tough though when everyone -- including myself -- was counting her out. By the end of the day, she had manged to build her stack back up over 100,000. She completed Day 3 with 249,000, and jumped up to 909,000 by the end of the next night.

She kept on matriculating through the field, proving she was no fluke and putting herself among the chip leaders over the course of the next two days. By the end of Day 5, she was in sixth place with 3.438 million and that trend continued yesterday -- Day 6 -- when she finished up in a remarkable third place holding 9.775 million! After play was complete last night, Tiffany executed a little role reversal with another successful female poker player, Maria Ho. Last year, Maria went further than any other woman, finishing in 10th place and earning an interview with Tiffany Michelle. This time though, Maria held the microphone and asked all the questions. Check out their interview below:



With just 18 players left now (and still counting), Tiffany is in the middle of the pack, sitting healthy with over 5 million. While this is certainly an astounding personal achievement for Tiffany, it is also growing ever nearer to a history-making ordeal. The only woman to have ever made the Main Event final table was Barbara Enright in 1995, finishing 5th. There's a monumental difference between the two accomplishments though: Enright outlasted 268 players in earning her final table berth. Tiffany, on the other hand, faced a massive field of 6,844 players, making this run one of the most historically noteworthy among women in poker. She has already set one record by outlasting 99.736% of the field in the Main Event, and if she can make it through the day, she'll have locked up another.

Tiffany is guaranteed a payday of more than $334,000, and she is inching ever closer to becoming a millionaire. Throughout her run, she has shown poise and determination that far surpass her supposed skill level. Say what you will about her, but Tiffany Michelle is putting on a remarkable show -- one worthy of the record books -- here at the 2008 World Series of Poker.

Freerollin', Dancin', and the Story of My Balls

So yesterday night did indeed kick ass, much as I thought it would. Around 5:00pm, the roommates and I headed to the Rio to play our PokerNews freeroll. I think there were 60 of us playing, and I managed to make the final table. Time was getting on, and we chopped it up ten ways for $500 each. That was 4th-place money, and I was starting to get a little bit short, so I was fine with that. I also collected on two little last-longer bets. Ship ship.

Then it was time to head to the Palms for the PokerStars Burlesque Party. It was poppin'. Rain is a pretty nice place, and free bars on every side of the room could make even the lamest of parties light up. This was no lame party either. We walked in to smokin' hot girls dancing under spotlights in the corners of the room. There was also a circular trapeze thing over the middle of the floor, and there was another scantily-clad female up there shaking her proverbial groove thang. And every so often, they would open the stage curtain and put on a short burlesque show. Hotness.

The majority of the PokerStars pros were in attendance, including Daniel Negreanu, Joe Hachem, Humberto Brenes, Victor Ramdin, Hevad Khan, and a very-drunk Bill Chen. Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell, of UFC fame, was there as well. The party wore down around 1:00am, as a lot of the attendees had to wake up early to play (or cover) Day 2 of the Main Event. I was smashed, and not that tired, so I followed Chris Boncek, Garry, Leon, Mark and his girlfriend out to the Palms casino floor where we huddled around a fresh blackjack table. I was running good and somehow managed to turn $200 into $2,225 in about two hours or so. Ship ship that too. That put me up almost $3,000 on the day, which was sorely needed following my recent spending binge and a couple losing sessions in a row on the poker tables.

Wait, back it up. Important details left out of the PokerStars party. And even the freeroll before that. So, at said freeroll, about halfway through, I got moved to the table of my arch-nemesis, Joe Schepis. The cockbag Joe Schepis... not to be confused with any other Joe Schepis. (This is only going to be fun because he reads my blog, apparently. It's not even worth mentioning apart from that.) It's hard to describe with real words why I loathe that dude. There's just something about him. He's "that guy", if you know what I mean. He's a know-it-all who talks to people as if he's the only one who is informed on a particular subject. That high and mighty thing really gets to me. The only person that likes Joe Schepis is Joe Schepis. He is an utter and complete tool box.

So anyways, just a couple hands in, he's up to his usual Hollywood shit, taking forever to make a decision and just being an ass to the whole table -- all his workmates, mind you. I ask him once to hurry it up, and he says, "Why, are you gonna blog about it?" So that's how I found out he googled his own name and found himself in one of my previous -- and related -- blog posts. He gets moved a short time later and eventually ran out of chips, much to my delight. But there was carryover cooking.

Fast forward to Rain, about the time the night calms down and everyone is sufficiently hammered. I am standing on the upper level overlooking the room and enjoying myself with a little group of us PokerNews-ers. Joe comes out of the shadows, walks up to me, doesn't say a word, and with a full windup, punches me squarely in the balls. It is literally the hardest I've ever been hit there, and it dropped me right to my knees. Everyone was on Joe, telling him how fucked up that was, but I couldn't do anything about it at that particular moment. I found one of the lounge couches and hung out there until I regained feeling in my nuts. As soon as my legs started working again, I stood up, walked straight over to Joe, and drilled him in the face. I guess I drew blood above his eye, but I really couldn't see much. We tussled for a minute or two, and then again one more time before we left. I honestly don't know how he fared, but I think I got one or two more fists on or near his face. He had me bent-over in a headlock at one point, so I attempted to return the ball-striking favor, but he didn't even flinch. Interesting.

It was pretty fucked up, unless I'm missing something here. I have never really gotten in a fight with anyone. I'm either very agreeable or a total pussy. But seriously, where's the one place guys are simply not allowed to aim for when fighting another guy? That's right boys and girls. The balls. At least I was hammered enough to get back on my feet quickly. Although, I honestly wish I had been stone-cold sober so I could have caved his face in properly. If anyone deserves it, it's Mr. Joe Schepis.

Fortunately, I had the aforementioned amazing session at the blackjack table, and riding home counting my money did well for the pain.

--

Today, I was back way too early to cover Day 2a of the Main Event. It went well-enough, I suppose. Credit for that goes to Dave "F-train" Behr, who was kind enough to take the second half of my shift so that I could go home at the dinner break. He refused, but I shipped him $60 for being so generous. For the short time I worked, I had a good time trying to size up Schepis' facial situation without being too conspicuous about it. I was also railing Jeremiah Smith for a while. He was a big stack all day, and was even the chip leader for exactly one hand. They are still playing now, but I have an eye on the live updates, sweating him from across town. Jeremiah is really a monstrous tournament player. He makes all the right moves early on and knows how to use his stack. Take it down, fool!

I made it home a little after 8:00pm, puttered around for a bit, wrote this, and now: bed. I swear, this is going to be the best night of sleep ever in the history of mankind. I will get to that catching-up thing soon, I swear. Until then.

No Time to Say Hello, Goodbye

I have been delinquent in my blogging responsibilities of late, and this aggresion will not stand, man. Two weeks of no posts? This shit stops right here.

Sooo... I have a lot to catch up on, and I'm still hunting through my schedule for the day when I know I'll have some time to devote to filling in the story that I've neglected to tell. Still not seeing any of my winning numbers on the board. Today was supposed to be that day; it's the off day for the entire WSOP between the Day 1's and Day 2's, meaning I am lucky enough to be sitting home in my underwear today as well. But this so-called "day off" is almost as busy as my run-of-the-mill "day".

Chris and Sabrina stayed at my place last night because their entire collection of possessions is crammed into eight feet of space on a moving trailer, set for a cross-country run to North Carolina. I took the couch for the night and managed to crack my eyes open to see them off mid-morning. They are spending the next five days plodding across the map to their new home in Raleigh. Looking forward to good times and many sleepless poker nights with the two of them.

My secondary challenge for today was to catch up on sleep. Mission Status: Complete. After the nomads left my house this morning, I saw no reason to set my alarm for anything in particular. I went back to my bed and pounded out another few hours of sleep. Woke up around 2:30pm, I think. Though it was delightful, I did manage to sleep through the lazy, do-nothing part of my day off. The day is getting on along already, and as soon as evening closes in, the relaxation ends.

At 6:00pm, we have a PokerNews freeroll in the Brasilia Room at the Rio. Should be about 50 of us playing, and we only have three hours to pack it into, so it's going to be a total shit show. I fully intend to take that bitch down though. There's a $5,000 prize pool, plus a $300 bounty on the three bosses, and I've heard a few rumors that there might be some goodies added to the pool by another sponsor. We'll see.

Following that, PokerStars is having their big blowout tonight, I think it starts at 9:00pm. I won my Main Event package on Stars, so I had access to that party from the get-go. But the other day, all of the PokerNews people were put on the guest list by Marta, one of the higher-ups. I love the fact that the poker sites reach out to the media like they do. The poker world really does love PokerNews, it seems. Anyways, the party is at Rain, one of the clubs at the Palms. It's open bar, and it should be the nuts. That's going to wind down around 1:00am I would think, and then I'm probably going to want to get to bed pretty shortly after that.

That doesn't leave much time for blogging, I realize. Hopefully I'll have a chance to go back and talk about some things of interest from the past two weeks. Some of the things I need to hit, before I forget:

- Event #44 - $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em with Rebuys
- H.O.R.S.E.
- The visit of Ben and Brian
- Event #50 - $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha World Championship
- The start of the Main Event
- Jeremiah Smith
- Ron Kluber
- My camera

See what an uphill climb I have in front of me? And tomorrow, I'm back at the Rio for the Day 2 crowd of Main Event-ers, with no end to the madness in sight. Sigh. More to come, A.S.A.P.