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Sport Report: The Science of Picking the Perfect Bracket
There were over 1200 submitted brackets in my PH ESPN NCAA Tournament Challenge this past March and more than $3.5 billion spent on bracket tourneys overall in 2012! With cash like that you’ve gotta have a strategy for picking the winning teams right? Read More »
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Where in the World is Phil: Shadow Creek Golf Course
Love the incredible Shadow Creek Golf Course in Vegas. In my book, lunch over the 18th green + hitting balls all afternoon = relaxation. I’ve started to realize that playing golf well takes almost as much concentration as poker!! My form’s getting better every day, but it’s still no match against my buddy Tiger Woods.
Question: if you had to play 18 holes using ONLY 1 CLUB what club would you choose and why?
Photo courtesy Shadow Creek Golf Course
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Weekend Review: Social House LV
Hello Kobe Sashimi!! The amazing guys at Social House blow me away every time. The owners also run PURE, Studio 54, and LAX (to name a few) but personally, I think they did it best with Social House. Plus the restaurant’s usually packed with celebs. I recommend the Kobe Sashimi, the Kobe Gyoza, and Yokai (after dinner drink).
What’s your favorite restaurant in Vegas?
Photo courtesy of The Angel Management Group
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Trust Your Instincts
I have received a number of complaints recently through newspapers and Card Player magazine along the lines of “Phil, please don’t tell us the results of a ‘Poker After Dark’ episode before it airs.” Furthermore, it is now in my contract with NBC and “Poker After Dark” that I cannot reveal the results. OK, I can still talk about the lineup and a hand that I played during an episode. As many of you know, “PAD” appears on NBC six nights a week, 52 weeks per year at 2 a.m. A hit show, it gets better ratings than most other late-night programs.
“PAD” reminds me of the old days when I competed with mostly great players, many of whom have something interesting to say because they are clever, witty and sharp as a tack. And some are just plain characters! I love the fact that “PAD” shows every hand — or the vast majority of them — instead of “highlight-hand poker” that appears everywhere else. The hand that I’m going to talk about in this column occurred during a show with Clonie Gowen, Phil Laak, Gavin Smith, Mike Matusow, David Williams and me.
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Sully’s Bad Beat – And His Cool Tattoo
(Hellmuth here: About 18 months ago, Sully Erna, the charismatic lead singer of Godsmack, took a bad beat so upsetting that he went out and got a huge tattoo on his back. Erna’s poker story — in his own words — follows.)
I had been at the Bellagio playing in a tournament with David Plastik and Gavin Smith, but I was knocked out by midday so I decided to go play in a cash game. I sat in on a $5 to $10 no-limit hold ’em table to kill time. I sat in seat one and bought in for $500. Four hours later, I was sitting on about $3,000. In the big blind, I peered down at pocket aces and watched two people ahead of me limp into the pot for $10. Seat 10 raised it up to $90 to go, I smooth called, and both limpers went away. The flop came down As-Qs-Ah. I checked … seat 10 bet $220, and I smooth called again. The turn card was the 10s, I checked, praying that he had spades, and he bet $500. I raised it up to $1,100 to go, and he pushed all-in! He had me covered, so I called for all of my remaining chips. I proudly flipped over my four aces, and he showed me pocket kings with the king of spades. “Yummy!” I thought.
Then the river card was peeled off, and the Js hit the felt as if it were in slow motion — like in a movie. Boom! Royal flush for seat 10, and a big pile of chips gets pushed his way. I stood up from the table and said, “There’s no justice in poker.” I then called my friend Nina, who hooked me up with her tattoo artist. I headed down to his shop, where he tattooed four aces going up in flames on my entire back with a banner below it, which read: “No Justice.”
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Shak Fires the Third Bullet
Last week, I watched NBC’s “Poker After Dark,” which featured Gus and the girls. That is, Gus Hansen, Clonie Gowen, Erica Schoenberg, Vanessa Rousso, J.J. Liu and Beth Shak. FYI: I like all six players, and they are well liked on the poker tour. Of course, a lot of beauty surrounded the table in this match (not Gus)! In “PAD,” the six players buy-in for $20,000, and first place is a winner-take-all prize of $120,000. “PAD” reminds me of the old days when I used to play primarily with great players — the same ones that regularly compete on the show now. These days, I’m not around the poker tour as much — until the World Series of Poker events begin — and I miss the guys and gals. I miss the witty banter, the big mood swings (OK, that’s just me), the intelligent conversations, the side bets, the high-stakes poker and the feel of competing against the best.
In our hand of interest, with the blinds at $100 to $200, Shak opened for $600 under the gun with A-J off suit. Schoenberg called — in second position — with the 9c-8c, and everyone else folded. The flop was Q-Q-8, Shak bet out $1,200, and Schoenberg called. On the turn, a five hit: Shak bet out $2,500 quickly, and Schoenberg took her time before she called. On the river, a nine hit: Shak bet out $5,000 immediately, and Schoenberg studied a while before she finally sighed and folded her hand.
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