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I wish our first two days in Vegas were as easy as the drive out from Los Angeles. Though we managed to drive 300 miles, pick up our keys, and shlep all our stuff from the car to our apartment at the Del Bocca Vista in less than five hours, Pauly managed to break a mirror in the bedroom before we could even finish unpacking. I’m not superstitious so I didn’t think much of it, but for him, it was akin to the seventh sign of the apocalypse. Everyone’s favorite internet doctor was genuinely spooked.

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I played the PokerStars Oceans 13 Darfur Tournament this afternoon and finished 263rd out of 744 runners. The event ended up raising $41,800 for Not On Our Watch. I went in for 4 rebuys plus the add-on and happily busted my Stars account for a worthy cause. I ended up seated at the same table as the lovely Mad Harper, who covers the EPT for PokerStars while Pauly drew Humberto Brenes’ table. He had more railbirds than the Costa Rican “Sharrrrrrrk.” I spotted Drizz, Katitude, yestbay1, bayne_s, AlCantHang, Derek, EPT founder John Duthie, Katja Thater, Bill Chen, Tom McEvoy, and Chris Moneymaker in the field.

My big opportunity to acquire a stack came late in the rebuy period when I called with A-K in a four-way pre-flop all in. My opponents had K-J, K-J and 5-8 offsuit. An 8 flopped and I was felted. Did a double rebuy and hung on with between 3000-5500 for the rest of the tourney. I donked out when I raised with K-T from the cutoff, got re-raised by the button and just decided to shove for 10 BB more. He had Q-Q and that was the ballgame. But it wasn’t really about winning in this one.

Pauly played a lot better than I did and went out on a bona fide bad beat “with A-9 vs. A-2 and the cumstain rivered a 2… you can quote me on that.”

I played a few $6.50 turbos during the Darfur tourney and finished 2-2-4, funding a couple of rebuys. I suck at playing heads-up in these turbos and seem to lose all solid reasoning and patience when we both have like, 6000 chips and the blinds are 400-800/100. I blew huge chipleads heads-up to land both my second place finishes.

Tomorrow, Pauly and I pack up the car and move to Vegas for the next two months to cover the WSOP for PokerNews. For our summer digs, we have a lovely furnished apartment with a patio and a big screen TV at the tweaker-free Del Bocca Vista complex, which also features two pools and a gym. We have a ridiculously short commute to the Rio and are within a five-minute drive of a Sonic. Mmmmmm… Texas Toasters. We’ll have a few days to settle in, attend some pre-WSOP meetings, and hopefully find time to play some cards.

It was paycheck Friday. Not for me, as we freelancers become quickly accustomed to pay schedules with the irregularity of the busted cuckoo clock hanging in my parents’ living room, but for most of the working world, the fifteenth means payday and that blissfully full feeling of temporary financial reprieve. And for the degenerate gambling population of southwest Los Angeles, that typically means a trip to Hollywood Park to blow some percentage of that check on poker and ponies. Wanting to check out the $6-12 game, I ventured into the gangland of Inglewood, armed only with my meager bankroll, though brass knuckles might have been a weapon better suited for the game I was about to enter. (more…)

There are two major poker events on the horizon that will benefit the war-torn region of Darfur in the Sudan. Nearly half a million people have been killed there over the last three years including thousands upon thousands of children.

For those with smaller bankrolls, Poker Stars is hosting the Ocean’s Thirteen Darfur Charity Tournament next Sunday, May 27th, at 12:30 PM PDT/3:30 PM EDT. Details below from the PokerStars Blog:

Buy-in: $10 plus rebuys

Prizes: Top 4 receive tickets to June 5th premiere in Los Angeles plus 2 night’s hotel and $2k for travel/spending.
Top 18 receive autographed copy of “Oceans 13” DVD.

These tournaments are special re-buy tournaments - the entire prize pool will be matched by PokerStars and donated to the Darfur relief efforts. At the conclusion of the event the prize pool, which will be temporarily awarded to the 1st place finisher, will be removed from the 1st place finisher’s account.

The amount will then be matched by PokerStars and sent forward to the Darfur charity. Thank you for participating - go re-buy crazy! – it’s for a good cause. Good luck!

Proceeds from the PokerStars Darfur Tournament benefit Not on Our Watch.

If you can’t make the tournament, it’s still possible to donate funds. Simply make a player-to-player transfer to the PokerStars account “NOOW,” which is set up to take additional donations.

For players with larger bankrolls, Ocean’s Thirteen star Don Cheadle and WSOP bracelet winner Annie Duke have collaborated to raise public awareness of the humanitarian crisis in Darfur with the Ante Up for Africa Charity Tournament to be held at the Rio on July 5 at 4 PM, on the eve of the WSOP Main Event.

The tournament has a $5,000 buy-in and will benefit the International Rescue Committee and The Enough Project. In addition to pro poker players like Duke, Erik Seidel, Clonie Gowen, Howard Lederer, Phil Gordon, Joe Hachem, and Andy Bloch, actors and sports stars including Ben Affleck, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Jennifer Tilly, Matt Damon, and Charles Barkley are expected to play. A star-studded after-party will follow at the Voodoo Lounge at 10 PM for all tournament participants.

Please do your best to support these events and spread the word.

Miami Don is once again hosting the “Blogger Big Game” this Sunday at 6:30 PM PDT/9:30 PM EDT on Full Tilt. The buy-in is $69+6, or one $75 token and I just nabbed mine in one of the $14+1 “token frenzy” super satellites. I spotted Hoy, Otis, and Grubby in the satellite field as well this afternoon. So if my donkey ass can win one, your chances are excellent

For any non-U.S. readers out there (and I know you’re out there), Mansion Poker is running all sorts of WSOP satellite goodness this month. Mansion has already proven that they’re totally insane by continuing to run their $100,000 guarantee tournament despite constantly having to pay out overlays. Their WSOP sats are sure to be just as juicy. For more info, check out this page.

After writing for most of the day on Monday, I got the itch to play some live poker. The timing couldn’t have been worse. It was about a quarter to five in the afternoon and I’d be hitting the East L.A. interchange at the peak of rush hour. As I drove down La Cienega with the Grateful Dead playing, I told myself that if the freeway looked like a mess, I’d keep heading south and go to Hollywood Park. If the freeway was moving (in Los Angeles driving parlance, “moving” is defined as the average speed of the freeway falling in the 35-45 MPH range) I’d get on and head for Commerce. It was better than moving and Commerce won the evening’s first coin flip.

I was sitting in a $4-8 game by 5:30. I was sad to find out that the $6-12 action had dried up and they had stopped spreading it about a year ago. Had it really been that long since I played live at Commerce? So when faced with the choice of $4-8 or $9-18, $4-8 won easily. The low-limit room had changed quite a bit since when I last saw it during the L.A. Poker Classic in February. The whole elevated “Terrace” area that had housed the $9-18 and $15-30 games was demolished, and now the floor was a single-level sea of tables. Near the side entrance I also noticed a new “Player Information Desk” with computerized tournament schedules and pre-registration.

Until I played a few hands, I was unaware that from 5-8 PM it was Double Jackpot time. The bad beat jackpot was a monstrous $22,000 during those hours, which goes a long way toward explaining why the room was completely packed on a Monday. At least 7 people were in every pot and when the board paired aces, the the table got deadly quiet. SoCal degenerates take their jackpots very seriously.

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I had a dream last night that I was in Vegas on one of the biannual blogger trips, only this time, instead of the relative comfort of The Castle, The IP, or The Orleans, we were staying in one, huge specially-designed-for-us room in the basement of the Red Rock Casino that had it’s own Pai Gow table. It resembled an army barracks, the way the beds were bunked and lined up by the dozen, though it maintained the same sleek, modern aesthetic of the actual Red Rock rooms even though there were 60 of us staying in it. Falstaff had the bunk above me in the dream and he snored. Loudly. (more…)

The Backstory

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, I sat at a conference table across from half a dozen agents in the Beverly Hills offices of the “big five” agency that represents, among hundreds of Hollywood luminaries, filmmaker Curtis Hanson. The Big Man’s lieutenants and foot soldiers had these agency “walk-throughs” from time to time at all of the major percentaries on Wilshire Blvd., and these meetings were really just a way for us to get good face time with the agents and find out what their big clients were up to.

I was doodling something in my notebook when I heard one of the young Ari Gold wannabes at the end of the table say something about the World Series of Poker. My ears perked up like a puppy’s.

“Curtis is in pre-production on it right now. It’s a father-son story set against the backdrop of Las Vegas and the World Series of Poker.” (more…)

A surprisingly strong pro contingent showed up to play the $5,000 WSOP Circuit Event at Caesar’s Palace today. 336 players bought in, including World Series bracelet winners like Chris Ferguson, Greg Raymer, Scotty Nguyen, Men “The Master” Nguyen, Max Pescatori, Mark Seif, David Williams and Kathy Liebert as well as online superstars Shaniac, Nordberg, tsoprano, Takeover, TMay420, and TheWacoKidd. I’m honored again to be part of the PokerNews reporting team, an all-star lineup if there ever was one. The gang was all there today: Schecky, Shrink, Shronk, B.J., Amy, Tiffany, Leeanne and Pauly.

Here’s a few choice moments from today: (more…)