JenLeoLIVE!

Considering playing the Ladies WSOP Circuit event at Caesars

The ladies event in the 2008 WSOP Circuit Event at Caesars Palace is on today at 11 a.m. John told Tiffany yesterday that I wouldn't be playing it. It's true, I hate playing women. But I had a good show this weekend and was playing well so I started to reconsider.

For some reason my husband knows me pretty well and articulated why I hate playing them better than I could've explained it. "You don't like playing women-only poker because you hate losing to women. You don't mind losing to men, but you hate losing to women. Every year you play a women's tourney and every year you swear you'll never do it again."

And then he said he'd stake me for half. Actually, he might've said that before his accurate spiel. So, I'm considering it.

I'm remembering the good run I had on Saturday. I'm remembering that the first time I ever played a poker tourney was at a LIPS tourney at Bay101 and I made it to #14 out of 150 or more. And I didn't even know how to play then. Maybe if I wear the same out fit I wore on Saturday when I won - especially my new lucky hat - maybe just maybe I won't go out first at my table like fucking last year. And that was just a weekly women's tourney.

Besides, if John is paying half....

BUT - maybe I only won on Saturday because I was playing with my own money. Which I said when I cashed out.

Oy, the dilemna. Either way - I'd have to get some work done and be showered and dressed and down there by 11am. That, I don't know if I can do.

The World Poker Blogger Tour invades the Strip

The poker bloggers are in town. The World Poker Blogger Tour happens twice a year and is one whooping scream of a good time. I don't think I've ever stayed up late enough to partake in any antics that would make me a legend, make me miss the tourney the next day, or cause serious damage at the ATM machine—but it does feel good to be having drinks with a mass of other bloggers and degenerate poker players. This year it felt even better. I've left the poker writing scene, and my contact with this world has been slim. So it felt that much warmer to embrace folks who you get blitzed with twice a year.

We met up at the MGM Grand's sports bar next to the poker room. There were three tables of $3-6 mixed games going on but we never heard our names called. Nobody was giving up their seats and that was just as well. The cool people were drinking greyhounds around the corner as Brits got shooed by security out of the walkway.

Our poker tourney today is small potatoes compared to the other groups taking over Vegas this weekend. First of all, the ever so spanking trim cowboys with their pressed shirts and dress Stetsons are in town. Yeeeeooowie, buy me a ticket to Wyoming! It's NFR time, baby. I've been before – even stayed at the Frontier and hung out at Gilley's back in the day (2 years ago).

The other big event is fight night. Ricky Hatton takes on Make-it-Rain superstar Floyd Mayweather. So there are 33,000 lovely British accents to be heard in all the casinos up and down the Strip.

But back to us bloggers.

We ran into Linda and April first, but it was Falstaff that gave me the best pick-me-up hug greeting ever. Everyone was proud of him for losing so much weight, but worried to no end that his kilt wouldn't stay up at the tournament. He said it was the heroin, but we know he must've been exercising. The question is, are there any prop bets that it was a gastro band? (sorry I don't have a pic of the lean mean falstaff machine yet)

Bloggers I bought drinks for: Pauly, Iggy, Change100, ??
Bloggers I bought drinks for in hopes of converting to Twitter: Iggy
Bloggers surprised me by saying they get my Twitter on their Bloglines: Pauly
Bloggers who bitched that they weren't going to drink so much this time because they didn't wan to puke like last time and then snipped at me for not buying them a drink: Bobby Bracelet
Bloggers who showed up with hot girlfriends: F Train, Aussie Garth
Bloggers who said they saw me at the L.A. Times but didn't say hi: Joe
Bloggers I said hi to or talked with between getting drinks: Maudie, Derek, Otis, Katitude, Rooster, Gracie and Pablo, Al Can't Hang, Aussie Garth,
Bloggers I might've missed last night but am not sure if they were there: Grubby, G-Rob, Waffles
Bloggers who I admitted I thought I had a connection with and always want to talk more to but never get to talk more to and then was told he's like that with everybody: Otis
Bloggers who I missed last night: Amy, Leigh & Brian, CJ, Will, Ryan, Donkey Puncher
My favorite poker bloggers who are too cool to ever come to our events: Wicked Chops Poker
Other bloggers that were busy playing poker last night and I didn't get a chance to say hi to: Mean Gene, Special K
Bloggers who I hope I get to hear telling others that he's homeless and doesn't know how to play poker: Mr. Subliminal
Bloggers who have a blog but don't blog and I married them anyway: Schecky

Everyone's saying how many new poker bloggers are at this event this year. If you wind up at this post, please  introduce yourself to me today at the tourney and/or add your name and blog in the comments. And if we did hang out last night and I missed you on this list, demand a drink from me today at the tourney. It's really great to have you all in town.

And - oh, if you want to follow me on Twitter. Sign up, and then find me here.

CURRENT: Las Vegas, NV
NEXT: Seattle, WA by midnight

John Caldwell wins Poker News Cup, Event #4

All John, all day. We're so excited for him! And this is just an awesome picture. Thanks so much to the Poker News staff and especially Change100 for keeping us updated at the final table. This finish was great to wake up to!

Have a lot of fun tonight guys!!!!

Here's what Poker News put up in their News Flash box:

Schecky Suffers ‘CrackBerry’ Withdrawal Always-connected PokerNews.com Editor-in-Chief John ‘Schecky’ Caldwell found himself unable to access his beloved ‘CrackBerry’ (BlackBerry) or cel phone recently, but with good reason --- he was at the final table of Event #4 in the ongoing PokerNews Cup in Melbourne, Australia. Schecky entered the final table third in chips, then stayed in the mix to be one of five players with nearly even chip counts to participate in a late deal, pocketing $24,800 in Aussie dollars. Schecky eventually took down the title, coming from behind to eliminate runner-up Marcel Roosen and claim the AU $29,800 first prize. Congrats, John!

John will be back in the U.S. on Oct. 31, 2007.

Bart Simpson (Nancy Cartwright), Men the Master, Mark Levine

As you know, we went to Nancy Cartwright's Monte Carlo fundraiser.Here are some of the pics. I played next to Men the Master. I outlasted him, but that just might mean I said "Rebuy" once more than he did.

Here's Mark living it up with Men.

To L.A.: Simpsons Monte Carlo night + Queensbury Kings poker home game

I never thought I'd say it—ever in my life—but I can't wait to go to Los Angeles tomorrow. We had plans to go to the Nancy Cartwright's (Bart Simpson's voice) charity Monte Carlo night on Saturday and are now going over a few days early. John's got to take some meetings, but more importantly for ME, I'm going to happy hour with some LATimes.com web folk and our poker home game straight after. YAY!

I will also admit that my normally sunny self has been terribly grey. The psychic predicted the malaise (not depression) and said that I'm not laughing enough. As  I've had time to analyze it, I think it has a lot to do with a lack of motion (exercise), guilt from not having done the wedding thanks yous, and not enough social time.

Seems easy, do the thank yous, take a walk and make some friends without gambling $200/day. (Speaking of gambling as a way of getting out of the house, Susie Isaacs was at the TI ladies tourney this past Monday)

So you can imagine how excited I am to be getting a full day of it tomorrow. and this weekend. Woo hoo! Cured. Two plans + an orange popcicle. I need another...

CURRENT: Las Vegas
NEXT: Los Angeles (Thurs-Sun)

Calling all women poker players in Vegas

I will admit it. I don't like playing poker with women. But, that's not going to stop me from going to the ladies-only tournament tonight at Treasure Island. I've been out of town for the last three of their new women's tourneys. It's $65 to get in, you get 3,500 chips and then the cat fight begins.

But it's not all for naught. TI is giving out $140 gift certificates for the Wet Spa to the first place winner in addition to the prize pool. So far the attendance has been low so get on over here.

Mondays at 7pm.

I mean, come on, you didn't really want to fetch beers for your man while he watches Monday Night Football did you?

Come on, meet me there tonight. It'll be fun, I can drink tomato juice!

Do you play Settlers of Catan?

I'm nutso for Settlers of Catan. Harold & Jenny introduced it to us and we went right out and bought one the next day. I want to buy one for all game lovers I know, but the ole ball & chain has a flag on my expenses until I pay off my share of the wedding. (We went over a bit...). Actually not really, but I like saying the ole ball & chain.

You can find out more about Settlers of Catan on the all new Catan Online. I've even already signed up for a Catan Meetup alert in case we can find people to play with. But I'd rather just seduce our friends Leigh & Brian into it.

John is shocked at how competitive I am when playing. He beat me twice in a row the other night. Despite all marriage advice, I sure as hell went to bed mad at him. He had an 8 card with sheep next to a sheep port and dominated to no end. I awoke and insisted on a re-match and got my ass whooped again. I hate him.

"How come you're not this competitive with poker?" he asked.

I had no reply. And I still don't know.

So, we haven't played Settlers in 24 hours. Instead we played some poker. I got a nice warm welcome back reception at the TI poker room. I guess you could say I got to know the dealers by name, or they got to know me by name rather, shortly before the wedding. When I showed up today they were all excited that I wrote about their new ladies tourneys in my Bird on the Rail column in BLUFF. Word on the street is that Caesars heard  TI was starting their Monday night ladies No Limit Holdem tourney and started theirs back up. At the time I wrote the blurb Caesars had shut their Tuesdays ladies tournes down until January. The bonus at TI is that they'll be giving out spa packages to the first place winner. So, not only do you get the biggest piece of the prize pool, but you'll also win a $100+ gift certificate at the TI Spa—Wet.

First ladies event at TI: Monday August 20, 2007. $60.
(I think it'll be at 7pm - but call 702-894-7291 to find out)

But that's skipping ahead. You want to hear about last night's tourney. We went to The Orleans with Leigh & Brian and played in a $105 tourney. I took 5th place! I think John said there were 108 players, but I can't remember. Prize was $680. Considering all three of them are better players than me, it was unexpected for me to last the longest. I almost didn't even rebuy. (You pay $65 first then $40  later). Anyway, it was a late night. I think we left The Orleans at around 1:30am.

Ummm, yes. We went out and did this fun stuff instead of looking at our wedding photos and writing thank you notes. SORRY! Had to get reacquainted with Vegas, baby!

CURRENT: Las Vegas
NEXT: San Francisco - Marin (Book Passage: More Sand event Aug 15, then Travel Writers & Photographers Conference 16-19)

 

Breakfast poker with Eric Assadourian

Gambling alert RED (and hunky).

It is absolutely OK for me to gamble if 1) I'm winning, and 2) I'm chatting with a hunky Australian.

With no internet access this morning I left the room headed for the cafe. I had about $40 in red leftover from yesterday's Loss of the Mohicans episode at a $4-$8 table in the Amazon room. There were some people at the table games and I eyed the Texas Holdem table game. I figured I could play a hand and be off to breakky.  But I started winning, and then star Aussie tournament player Eric Assadourian sat down on my left.

We started talking about Oz and he made some great suggestions for our honeymoon including a trip to Hamilton Island and a helicopter tour of Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef. I boldly asked if he would take me to a bbq when I came out for the Aussie Millions and he said yes, but that was early on. He might feel more comfortable with that if I say hi to him a few more times during the WSOP.

We was a humble gentleman, said good luck on about every hand, and gave me advice on the math, too. I turned $140 into $390 and left after he did. You might ask what a pro was doing at a measly lame table game, but he was just  killing some time while he waited to have breakfast with his cousin.

He's definitely someone to keep your eye on this tournament. Watch Eric's tournament history on the Hendon Mob database groooooow. And if you see this, good luck, Eric! That was fun.

First 24 hours at World Series of Poker

The new Amazon room is awesome. Harrah's transformed a warehouse room of tables into a landscape that tips its hat to WSOP champions past and present. The room is decorated with giant screens of past World Series winners as if it were the crown molding of the room. In the cash game area there is a walled off section of tables for high limit play. Yesterday I saw Men the Master playing what looked like a variant of Chinese Poker.The wall is waist high giving the players room and some privacy but still allowing the public to see who's in there.

I ran into Gavin straight off and he looked great. He's lost some weight, has a new girlfriend and is in top spirits. I haven't seen him in a long time but he wished me happy birthday and said barbaques are on the front burner. I can't wait to meet his girl, and am so happy for him.

Yesterday there was a fair commotion about a new deck of cards being used at the series.

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Here's Daniel talking about it on Poker News. The good news is that Harrah's acted quickly and swapped them out before the dinner break. You can see Daniel's video blog on RawVegas.tv.

Get your tournament coverage at WorldSeriesofPoker.com.

More to tell...talk soon.

CURRENT: LAS VEGAS RIO
NEXT: up the street for a body wrap

Birthday Boot Camp! Birthday poker!

Well, word is getting out about birthday poker tomorrow night. I got a request today that one of my #1 fans wants to read about the party, so somebody make sure I follow through. Or blog about it so I don't have to. We're having drinks and apps at Isla, the shmancy Tequila bar at TI then chasing it with a poker tourney, $60 + $5. I was in over the weekend a couple of times (bubbled dammit!) and let them know I was bringing in about 10 players. Michelle, the boss who won't be there tomorrow night was still excited about it. She gave me a hat. Look out. Between that and some WPT cop-style sunglasses, I'll look like a bad-ass.

But the two best presents I could ask for came today. First, Andrew gave me the day off blogging. Woohoo! Then my trainer called and said that I could choose the work out tomorrow and then have everyone else do them but me. What?! No way. I haven't been to Boot Camp since before the Bay to Breakers so I chose for us to do beach volleyball again. But I'm also going to ask for ab crunches, boxing moves, some planks, and the reach for your ankles from a horizontal position one. Good for the inches.

Even though I still have to work on other freelance assignments, it's going to be a great day. I mean, come on, there's no way I could have as bad of a day as Miss USA had yesterday. Ooops!

Anyway, come on out to Vegas. Surprise me tomorrow. Just show up at the TI poker room at 6:50pm. Come on...what else do you have to do? Bring it!

CURRENT: LAS VEGAS
NEXT: Somewhere....seats around California are only $39 each way on SWA in June and July