Liv Boeree News blog: March 2008

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Paradise City

I've pretty much told everyone I know so I'm going to get it out of the way right now... on Tuesday night I met Slash. That's THE Slash from Guns'n'Roses. Slash has been a hero of mine for a long, long time and so Tuesday night was quite a big deal as far as the tickboxes on life's list goes. This wonderful event occurred because Scott and Pearl invited Duncan and I to watch them support Velvet Revolver, with lovely backstage passes and everything. As such we got to watch Pearl truly kick-ass and warm up the enormous crowd, and then even better got to stand on the side of the stage to watch Slash and co in all their glory.

Anyway, all this heavy metallery has renewed an old passion of mine - guitaring. I used to play religiously as a geeky 16 year old for literally 3 hours a day, and as such got rather good (for a 16 year old geek). However, as poker and other such things took over I stopped playing and the poor guitars got hung up on the wall and forgotten for over two years. Although my fingers are no way near as speedy, nor my left and right hand at all coordinated in any way, it's slowly all coming back and it's a healthy distraction from check-raising.

Let it snow.

This week has been both chilled yet productive. Since getting back home to London I've finally been able to catch-up on life, see my poor boyfriend (who had forgotten what I look like) and most importantly, sleep. Also, it was my first week to try out my new skills recently acquired from Annie - poker and running long distances. Her infectious enthusiasm for fitness has been a real kick-start, particularly during England's miserable Winter months. The other day I dragged Duncan on a 4-mile run around the streets of Dulwich in 3 degree weather. We actually kept a really good pace the whole way round, so perhaps we aren't quite as unhealthy as we thought.

As for the poker, Annie's lessons once again proved their worth as I ended up final tabling on Thursday's $6k bounty tourney on Absolute Poker. This was the first full online tourney I'd played since last week's laptop disaster, and hence a real chance to try out the new strategies. It all started pretty slowly, until disaster struck and I lost two races back-to-back and was down to just 195 chips. I somehow then sextupleted up (sounds like a rude word, if it even is a word...) with KQ, then tripled up once again with Aces and then it all went rather spiffingly from there. In the end I came 9th out of 120 after losing a race to RideMyRiver who collected a cool $150 on top of whatever prize money he won - nice work!

Friday was my weekly dose of rock, in the form of the band Pearl which features Scott Ian from Anthrax and of course, his wife Pearl Aday. I'd met them both twice before; once in Vegas at Phil Hellmuth's party and the second time when he guested for Metal School in Los Angeles the other week. Scott ecstatic at the time because he'd just signed a contract with Ultimatebet, so I can completely understand his joy!

Anyway, they're currently touring the UK and as such invited Duncan and I to their opening gig. This was the first time I'd really seen them properly perform live (without the dulcit tones of the Devilfish) and I was totally blown away. Pearl's voice cannot be described as anything but magnificent - a modern day Janis Joplin crossed with the best bits of Bonnie Tyler. One of the best things about the band however was the banter they shared between one another and the crowd, particularly with such a strong chemistry between husband and wife - amazing! They're playing with Velvet Revolver this week so we're going along again to hang out, party, head bang and probably end the night with me stalking Slash backstage for a photo.

Right now, I'm trying to warm my feet on the radiator after getting back from a rather bracing Easter weekend down in the country at my parents' house. It was great seeing them and the dogs, horses and tortoises but it really was horrifically cold. Of course, the snow was exciting for all of about ten minutes before for the feeble 1/2 inch that the British weather had saved up all winter turned to slush. Come on summer.

Ahhh Vienna.

On the Saturday I landed back from LA I had two options; go to sleep before my early morning flight to Vienna the next day, or go out to see my favourite band, Children of Bodom, who were in town. Of course I chose the latter, because one must never turn down a good party. So off we went for all the noise, speed-shredding and sweep-picking I could've hoped for (if you don't know, don't ask) and then at midnight we bundled off to the after-party to meet some of the band, which was even better.

So in short, by the time I got home from the whiskey-fuelled party it was a case of turning straight around and heading back to dear old Heathrow airport which I'd just arrived in from LA some twelve hours before. This , combined with 9-hours worth of jetlag equalled some significant head-pain. However, I had a job to do as I was to be the lead presenter of the European Challenge II at the Concord Card Casino in Vienna, starting that night. Oh dear.

The first thing that hit me about Vienna was the smoking. Now I'm all for the casino and pub-culture, but I'm also a vehement anti-smoker and since the smoking ban in London had all but forgotten what it is like to be in a room where the smoke to air ratio is 4:1 . Therefore for the first few days of filming I had a voice like Pat Butcher and the red-eyes of erm, a red-eyed thing.

However, the filming generally went well, with plenty of interviews and one-take openers and closers, so I must have been doing something right! The town of Vienna has some very beautiful parts, and the people were very friendly despite our clear Britishness when we descended upon their various drinking establishments around 4am.

Despite being completely surrounded by poker I only got chance to play once the whole week, and that was on a €2-€4 NL cash game surrounded by the loosest playing hoard of tobacco fiends ever, who of course were puffing away at the table. Fortunately I had been told we were leaving in half an hour so when I found Jacks in mid position I made it €15 to go, got 4 callers (of course!) and was relieved when the board came 10 - 6 - 2 rainbow. I bet 3/4 the pot and the loosest of the loose boys ends up calling me to the river with A-10 off, doubling me up nicely.

Sadly the late nights and jet-lag (if one can still get away with this excuse a week later) made me miss my flight home, so the money made in the cash game went straight into British Airways' back pocket. Marvellous.

LA baby...

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!

Dodgy plays and internet cafes

This week’s been yet another busy one; from a friendly yet painful TV game to internet café nightmare to photo-shoot to 11 hour flight with a 4 hour delay, all in the name of poker! On Tuesday night I got invited to participate in a televised sit’n’go entitled “Dan’s first attempt at live tournament poker”. Now the Dan in question is a TV presenter who has worked in the poker industry for a while, but famously has never actually gotten around to playing the beloved game for real (or so he says). Hence nine opponents were picked to play against him for the chance to win a plastic trophy and the honour of crushing his bravado.

It started relatively well for me, taking advantage of everyone’s reluctance to get involved too early on and picking up small pots here and there. After about an hour Dan, who was sat two to my right, limps under the gun. I look down to AQ suited, so make it 3.5BBs to go. The action folds round to Dan who takes another look at his cards, mutters how he’s gonna “whoop my ass” and calls. The board comes A 10 5, Dan checks and I bet 2/3 the pot which Dan calls. The turn is a deuce, he checks again, but this time shoves in a massive re-raise on my already substantial bet. I notice he’s grinning like a madman, think for ages, call him a donk for playing A-10 UTG and fold. After much argument, he shows A-10. Such a good feeling to know I made the right fold, even if it had cost half my stack.

A few hands later I get pocket sevens and make it 4x BB to go. Dan’s in the BB and of course, calls. The board comes A-K-7, woohoo! He checks, and I check behind (big mistake), my poor logic at the time deducing that he probably doesn’t hold an Ace or a King considering he’s been playing looser than a lady of the night, and I need him to catch up if I’m going to make maximum value out of the hand. The turn comes an 8, he checks again and this time I bet ¾ pot. He calls, and river is a 6. He checks, I bet 2/3 pot, and he reraises me all-in. Oh bother. As I was massively pot committed I called to find he held 9-10 for the rivered straight, and I gave him all manner verbal abuse for calling pre-flop out of position with 9-10. Looking back on the hand however, I played the hand incredibly badly and was a muppet for giving him a free card on the flop, and he actually played the hand quite brilliantly, despite the initial loose call to start with. His check on his rivered straight was a brave but excellent move as he knew I would come out betting and hence took all my chips for relatively little investment himself. Not that I can ever let him know that ;-)

On Thursday I was out in the centre of London and couldn’t make it home in time to play the $1k guaranteed tourney on Absolute Poker, so found a nearby internet café to play. Once the archaic machine loaded up (really, who uses Windows 98 any more?) and finally got the software going it turned out that the dear old thing just couldn’t handle the thought of a chat box, let alone showing poker hands in real-time. After 5 infuriating minutes of seeing people asking questions and not being able to answer, and getting under 1 second to make any decisions because it took the computer 20 seconds to figure out what just happened, I bashed out on the keyboard that I was going all in next hand so I could go home. Clearly people value a bounty more than their actual tournament as 8 of them called, I got knocked out in 239 out of 241 (hell yeah!) and ran home for the $6k guaranteed an hour later.

This went considerably better, and ended with me coming 39^th out of the 150 odd entries. Although not as good as last week, it could’ve been worse! Congratulations to KAAAFKA for winning the $150 bounty by sucking out with his K7 vs my AK!

So anyway, right now I’m sat on a plane to Los Angeles, where I’m going to stay with a lady who needs no introduction; Annie Duke. I saw her recently in London where she was playing a major tourney and she offered to give me a week of intensive poker tuition. After rather excitedly jumping up and down on the spot a few times I quickly accepted. She believes she can turn me into the best female poker player in the UK. That’s quite a proclamation, but if anyone can teach pure, logical and successful poker it’s Annie. It’s going to be a full-on week, but I’m a very, VERY lucky girl!