Archive for February, 2006

Everyone, that’s paying attention, knows by now that Phil Ivey won $2m from Andy on Tuesday, the 21st, playing $30-60K limit. The last word out was that Phil was playing Andy again on Wed. Phil has to be elated over his first day. Andy has to be doing some research into his own play…cause he’s like that. (more…)

“WARNING! WARNING! Earth is approaching at 300,000 MPH. WARNING! WARNING! Outer shell burning, *static* inner core melt down *static* vessel explosion highly possible. Impending crash…impending crash…” That was screaming through my head as I finished off the last few hours of my Play/EO at work. My chips were disintegrating into the atmosphere or being scooped up by invading space ships - while a few of the remaining chips still tried to build a defense against the threats in the super chip wars. (more…)

Wayne was having a big turning point in his life, well for some people reaching 40 is huge, so maybe it wasn’t a big turning point for him but some of us wanted to help him celebrate. He elected to work. We elected to show up and wish him the best day possible and many more happy ones throughout the years. That was on Sunday, the 19th. (more…)

Informative reading on The Big Game

Saturday afternoon I had plans to meet Gary and Marie for lunch/dinner at the Peppermill. The Peppermill is not a casino, it’s a restaurant in the front - great food, lots of it, nice atmosphere - and a super ‘love’ rendezvous spot in the bar in the back. Sure there are machines in the bar for the patrons seated at the bar, what bar doesn’t have them? But the rest of the place is cozy, suggesting romance and more - on the spot. You have to see it to truly appreciate it. A group of us, namely Carmen Bates, Pete Popovich, self, and a few variables used to meet there one night a week after work during our Mirage days. We didn’t meet there for love, we met there to drink. But back to Saturday. (more…)

I could have sworn it wasn’t four days ago - that I was last here I mean. A lot of noise is going on in the poker world right now because of The Big Game - the game where Andy Beal takes on The Corporation, one player at a time. He took their buy-in this time and is basically waiting to see if they want to continue. (more…)

I can’t help but drift through the memory channel every now and then when I suddenly remember someone that used to frequent the poker rooms. The funny part of it is that normally when someone pops into my thoughts, even if I haven’t seen them in a few years, I will see them within the next week or two. Don’t ask. I don’t know how or why it works that way. I wish I could track it, record it, plan it, and then I could utilize it in being able to avoid problems or being able to increase productivity and other variables in life. For some reason, last week, Mark Spirit just flashed through my mind. He was a regular at The Mirage high limit 7 stud games for years, and played at Bellagio the first few years we were open. He just drifted off or maybe he had a plan and gave up poker…yeah…right! Now I’m wondering if he will appear somewhere in the near future. Nope, not making book on it. Just wondering. (more…)

Just think, in a few short hours, I’ll be tucked in my little, snuggly bed, crashed and isolated from the rest of the world in a blanket of dreams, but at Wynn, the poker game of the century will resume. Andy Beal came back to continue playing with the best of the best, for stakes that are truly, almost obscene. A few years ago, at Bellagio, I can remember hearing Mike Matusow state, “If he (meaning Andy) breaks them, there’ll be some great $200-400 games going on.” (more…)