I’m sat in LAX airport waiting for a flight back to sunny ol’ London after a week of training with Annie Duke, thanks to Absolute Poker. It’s been one hell of a week, with 5 days of intensive NL Hold’em game theory, diagrams and complicated scenarios. It’s been a fair few years since any form of education and as such it took the brain a while to get into data absorption mode, but Annie made sure that I wrote good notes and took great pleasure in springing difficult “ok, you’re out of position in a multiway pot, with AQ and an untextured flop hits…” style questions.
It’s not all been work though. On Monday we went out into the heart of Sunset Boulevard to meet up with rock A-listers Scott Ian from Anthrax and his wife Pearl, the lead singer of the band of the same name. We were escorted into a private booth to watch the comedy glam-metal band “Steel Panther”, adorned in spandex and big hair (two of my favourite things!). The band launched into Motley Crue and I was jumping on the chairs; this band completely recreates the 80’s metal scene for a 2008 audience, with the added bonus of each band member clearly having a background in stand up comedy. We were treated to a guest appearance from Pink who was sat nearby, some actor who is apparently big in the U.S. but I’d never heard of and then finally Scott Ian joining them on guitar to the band’s new rather delightful song “Asian Hooker”!
The next day Annie and I headed to Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas as she had some important meetings to attend, so I slipped off to the card room to practice my newly acquired poker knowledge on their nightly $150 tourney. It had a pleasantly long structure, and with 70-odd runners I knew it was going to be a long one. This, combined with the fact that I was concentrating harder on every little detail and betting pattern of my opponents than ever before, soon proved pretty tiring. Annie had said was that the first thing I’d notice is just how bad most people play, and she was certainly right! I was amazed and slightly appalled at these bad habits, even more so when I realised that I used to do them all the time!
Anyway, before I knew it we were down to the final table and I had a massive chip-lead, and then went on to take the whole thing down, including a rather tasty $2,500 for my efforts. Whilst I got lucky a few times by winning a few races, I can honestly say I had never played better thanks to Annie’s teachings – I owe you one Annie!
The next night I decided to play the same tournament again to double-check that my new strategies were working. They certainly seemed to be when we got down to the final 10, until I managed to run 10s in the small blind into the big stack’s Aces on the BB! Aside from the cold-decking, both Annie and I were chuffed with the back-to-back results, and I can’t wait to try out my new skills on a major tourney.
On my last night Annie’s boyfriend Joe took me out to a classic LA style red-carpet event, which was the opening of Eva Longoria’s new restaurant “Beso”. I was thoroughly star struck all night long, mingling amongst most of the cast of Desperate Housewives, Buffy and even American Gladiators!
All in all, it’s been a fantastic trip and I’ve learned an awful lot. Now I just need to put it into practice! I’ve got one night at home to look forward to before heading off to Vienna for a week to host the Spring Poker Festival – no rest for the wicked!
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