Las Vegas Highs Lows & Extortion - WSOP Trip Two 2017 Update

Las Vegas Highs Lows & Extortion - WSOP Trip Two 2017 Update

By the pool with a Pina Colada FTW!

I have tried to remain extremely positive about my last Las Vegas experience but after day seven of my return home still quite sick with holes in me from blood tests & fear of mutated flu viruses inside my aching body, its tough! I figured now I have risen from my bed I would not just complain, nor would I concentrate on following up on all of the fabulous things that happened, rather, even it all out with some highs and lows and what really got to me the most which can only be classed as time extortion and trickery!

I will start with the highs! I had the most fabulous people around me whilst in Vegas during my time at the WSOP! Not only were these people bright poker players, poker executives, writers and media staff but they were fun loving and never ceased to give smiles and a welcoming feeling! The WSOP and 888 poker crews sure have their stuff in order and I can only extend my congratulations to them all for what can only be classed as a very successful World Series of Poker, which went without a hiccup.

I owe a very big thank you and also some book reviews to D&B Poker for the books they gave to me to read over, sadly, I wasn't able to do on air interviews as promised. I will ensure I make it up to
them by screaming out the books I love most, from the mountain tops, as soon as I am well and writing every few days again.Pictured is Chris Moormans book published by D&B as well as a matching congratulatory cake! Brilliance!

Of all poker highs, one would have to be a little biased and mention the brilliant Heidi May taking down the WSOP ladies event as my all personal favorite. I had always wanted to watch the ladies event conclude and to see a fellow Australian take it down was something that had me jumping up and down and running the halls like a crazy woman (after I went under the rail snapping pics as quick as I could, of course!). Heidi sure has done Australia proud, along with James Obst who I really shouldn't leave out! Back to Heidi, she makes my high of the decade with my two favorite poker aspects joined together: women and Australia. I don't think this can be ever beaten, unless we have a future article title which says something like:

Australian Woman Wins WSOP Main Event Bracelet!

I was very smart, lucky and blessed to sign up as a diamond member of the Las Vegas Advisor which you can read about in my past blog posts. The Las Vegas Advisor gives some beyond fabulous deals, coupons and money savers that I just could never live without again. It is also a wealth of information which helped me along my way, where my friend was absent. Furthermore I was again blessed to go on an excursion to Huntington Press and gawk at the covers of gaming books galore and refresh, rewind and relax for a short while.

I had a lot of relax and rest time whilst in Vegas with again, the most amazing company I could wish for. I had beautiful lunches, dinners, pool side drinks, endless discussions and a lot of fun trekking the streets of Vegas & the casinos as well as going to a fabulous show (comedy hypnotist at V Theater), shopping and laying in bed (theater and shops pictured). My accommodation (talking of laying in bed) was fabulous! Every place I stayed, in fact! I simply can not complain about my personal time in Vegas, other to say that I just didn't have enough of it! I don't think a life time would be enough time anymore! If I could turn back time I would change only one thing, I would have had less sneaky cigarette breaks. It wastes time, life and fun as well as precious moments. Needless to say, I really miss the place and the people already.

When it comes to lows, I will try not to concentrate too much on them and give them much attention, negativity isn't going to make me feel any better. Firstly, the plane trips are always nightmares. I can not wait until they cut the flight time in half, somehow, surely its going to happen one day soon! I think I made my trip a little worse after drinking copious amounts of alcohol (per my body size at least) in order to sleep! Landing in LA wasn't pleasant, though much more pleasant then flying! My next low would be the shock to my system die to the climate difference! From -4 to 48c - HOLY COW! Enough said!

Crazy Aussie Lady needs some more poker action. Hehe!

Poker wise, I was quite disappointed that I didn't do more coverage of the WSOP, I was also disappointed I missed the main event, but there is always next year which may even bigger and better than this years all round record breaker! Either way, I am going to do my very best to get back there, punctually in 2018! I am also disappointed that I missed seeing James Obst win his WSOP bracelet, though, I was there in spirit I suppose and did watch a lot of his play. I am also annoyed as hell I didn't be poker groupie like and annoy the worlds best players for photographs. They are something I will likely treasure one day and well, I was too busy talking and not busy enough thinking! In all honesty, who talks to Negreanu multiple times, interviews him and doesn't get a pic? I suppose I'm just not poker groupie minded? Likewise with Chris Moorman, goodness gracious! Why didn't I get a picture with these great players? Not forgetting, I played no events, another disappointment but an expected outcome. In fact, I played no poker at all (Except a friendly heads up match)... Who does that?

A most disappointing thing that happened was falling victim to what I can only call trickery and to some level, extortion, mostly time extortion. In previous blog posts I mentioned the benefits of MyVegas rewards. Its an application I wont be using so frequently again! I had all the spending of my points penned out for when I arrived in Vegas. Unfortunately on arrival, nothing I wanted was available from my location. I contacted my sister who was in Australia and these reward options were still there for her. Buy before you leave! Some did re-appear again but with price extortion. The helicopter ride worked out cheaper without using the rewards and the Beatles Love show at MGM also worked out cheaper. Maybe it was poor timing for me, I have a lot of friends who use the app. Regardless, I wont be relying on it again for benefits or discounts and I take back everything I have previously said for now.

Ladies, gents, carry masks and have your hands sanitized constantly during travel! I know of three friends from the land down under that became seriously ill while transiting or playing poker. I am sure there are a lot more, I have not really spoken to too many people. I will leave that as my last note and a little tip.

Thank you to each and every one of you that accommodated me in any way during my 2017 WSOP experience. Thank you even more to those that invested a personal interest, added a personal touch or continued to be the very best friends / people that they are. You guys are what makes Vegas so very special and dear to my heart, from now to eternity! You are stars! Until I return again, I will continue to think as I work my way back: Ad astra per aspera. 💗

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Pain, Pills, Poker and Fighting for Life! Are You At Risk?

Pain, Pills, Poker and Fighting for Life! Are You At Risk?

We all whinge and whine about bad beats, suck outs and donkeys at some stage. The words ALL IN, with your tournament life on the line are frightening words! Being knocked out after those words really sucks! Tell me though; would you say those words ALL IN if your life depended on it? Not your tournament life your life existing on this planet.

Let me tell you about those suck outs whinges and whines I have had to deal with beyond poker. Let me tell you about my ALL-IN call. Let me tell how amongst everything you all see me do what I battle. I don’t write this for sympathy or for attention. I don’t write this to big note myself either. A friend told me BLOG IT! Blog what you do and what you are going through; you could save the lives of fellow players, it will also inspire people who don’t want to fight. Well; here I am blogging a personal struggle for my own existence. I am battling my final table on the felt of life!

Here is what I have done in the poker industry in the last 2 years. These are things you hopefully know of: Columnist Australian Poker Weekly, Columnist Woman Poker Player Magazine, Pokerpodradio Co-Host, WTF Poker Show Host, Poker Coach, Manager Raidbet, Manager Australia New Zealand Cybertech, Book Co-Author, Director PR Cybertech, Played Poker and Administered Various Poker Forums. I also have 4 kids and a house to care for. I am busy to say the least.

At times I have battled to lift my head off a pillow to do these jobs, not through laziness but illness. I have had personal issues that no one has a clue about. Normally it isn’t a good thing to spread personal business but for the sake of the countless poker players that may be in a similar position this time I am.

During the course of doing all the above I have spent countless hours back and forth to the doctor. I have a condition (endometriosis) and my doctor’s treatment of this condition has all but left me fighting for my life. I had 4 operations; more surgery was pointless according to the specialists. Surgery hasn’t worked.

The doctor continued treating my symptoms, agonising pain. Pain in my tummy, my back, my legs, my groin, the pain was so bad; so excruciating I was prescribed 120 panadiene forte at a time, 8 each day. I was relieved at having these meds on hand. The pills didn’t completely kill the pain but did take the edge off it. I remember having dinner with Barry Shulman and Wife Allyn (Card Player Magazine and Spadeclub) in Sydney and going into sudden agony. The pills were not going to work that night. Thank goodness they are understanding people because I truly started acting odd as it onset, all I could think was OH NO! Now? This happened many times to me over 2 years and this precious moment was one of them.

I changed doctors just recently and thank god I did! I had to have a nasty lump cut out and of course had blood tests and what not taken. I was crying so hard the night before my trip to the doctors to get my results. Always a bad thing when the nurse rings up and says “The doctor would like to see you ASAP, and no he won’t wait til your next appointment, he would like to start treatment tomorrow, your tests have come back bad.”. I expected I had malignant cancer of course, not a benign tumour after these words. I knew I had dreadful news to deal with.

“Your tumour isn’t going to kill you” explained the doctor, “But your liver is going into failure. How much alcohol do you drink?” I was honest of course, a few bourbons every few nights and a ton of them at parties which are few and far between with my busy poker and home schedules. He then asked about the medications the other doctor had placed me on and also the length of my treatment. I told him, pain pills prescribed by the doctor. For the record they are Tylenol (I think) in the USA and Panadiene Forte in Australia. He declares: “YOUR PAIN PILLS HAVE CAUSED THIS! THEY ARE KILLING YOU!”

Any wonder I was sick! My other doctor was killing me. I took those pills to function, to walk tourney floors, play long poker sessions, blog like I am now, do interviews write articles, mother kids, mow the damn lawn! They worked somewhat and were better than nothing it seemed. They were better than no poker!

Listen everyone; I have a long road to a full recovery. I am not taking pain meds and am in agony 24/7. I am having more surgery on my stomach and implants put in my body, I have changed my eating habits and can’t drink alcohol all in a battle to save myself and all this change in a matter of days. I must rejuvenate the liver! Thank fully it is one organ in the body that can fix itself. It takes, time effort and work though.

POKERPLAYERS – If you have a headache; a backache; a tummy ache; any pain at all – avoid taking pills(Yes I have seen quite a few of you reach for the headache pills at tables!). Find out why and have it fixed if you can and go for a second and third opinion. Choose the right ALL IN. Don’t go all in on the felt as you use a bandaid treatment for your pain. Go all in off the felt working out what’s wrong because if the pain isn’t going to kill you the medications will.

You can’t play poker when you’re dead; simple!

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Winning Poker Players

Winning Poker Players

We always hear of bad beats and hard losses, we also hear of major wins at events such as the WSOP and WSOPE. What we don’t hear of are the players that simply win. Many players are unknown and have no name; they are not famous for a major tourney event win or even from an online gaming giant sponsorship. Simply they are Winning Poker Players. Sure we have the likes of the high stakes rollers that play on major sites we see win all the time but what makes an ordinary Joe instead of a Joe Hachem a top notch winning poker player?

Winning Poker Players have many attributes that set them aside from the losers; they don’t care about fortune and fame but fortune and profit.

Winning Poker Players can be systematically cut into three basic categories online poker players, live poker players and online and live poker player combination. These categories can be further cut into tournament and ring game players and further dissected into a poker variant category, stake and player amount. Why do I bother typing what seems a load of nonsense? I type this as Winning Poker Players know their thing. Let’s use an example of a Winning Poker Player I know. I will dissect him!

Toni A_ _ _ _ _ n

1. Plays Online

2. Plays Ring Games

3. Plays No Limit Hold’em

4. Plays $100/$200 Blinds PLUS (depending on his bankroll)

5. Plays Heads-up ONLY

This internet poker player has an average profit of 13k a day and is unknown to the world. He makes that profit as he has made his game HIS; what works best for him.

Don’t be fooled though! There’s more to it then this! To be included in the winning poker players list, a player must know his/her poker strategy, odds, probabilities, statistics and opponents. Most importantly they must run themselves like a business keeping track of swings, hand ranges, results, bankrolls, profit, losses, expenditure, taxes – as I said, like a business. Professional poker playing for a living and being a winning professional player takes more than just the click of a mouse as one makes a raise!

There are also some other attributes a player must have that was indicated by one of the world’s biggest winning poker players. He is a winner in EVERY way. This somewhat more applies to those who do play live and some of the list to those who also who want a name as a winning poker player. Here is a list for those who wish to jump from an ordinary Joe to a Joe Hachem. Those who watched a certain TV series will know all about this list ;-)

1. Reading People

2. Focus

3. Bluffing

4. Composure

5. Recall

6. Endurance

7. Courage

8. Charisma

I will close on this blog post with the following random thought. I know one man and one lady who have all of this as part of their game (some people may know who by reading between the lines); this makes them winning poker players all the way! Kudos to anyone else out there with these attributes. I know I sure as hell try my hardest to follow this type of strict conduct and code.

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Tilting Twitter Twits

Tilting Twitter Twits

Of late it has come to my attention - and most likely yours too if you are on Facebook, Twitter or other similar online sites that a twitter phenomenon has started. Most importantly I have noticed the effect this is having on the world of poker and some poker player’s poker game, some of the biggest guns of poker being involved too!

In case you don't know, twitter is an online site basically used to tell people continually what you are doing via mobile messaging. You type something such as "I am currently writing an article for an online poker blog". This is done on a device such as your mobile phone or directly on the twitter site - www.twitter.com So let’s say I am a Twitter Twit, a very popular one at that! I type as above that I am writing this article and my "followers" receive this on both their computer at twitter or if pre-set, on their mobile phones. I must add before continuing, some people have more than 2000 followers in the poker world. This is a lot of mobile SMS texting after 1 tweet. A big bonus for the telecommunications companies!

The point I am getting to is the following: people (Twitter Twits) are doing continual updates instead of having continual focus and concentration on their poker strategy. They should PLAY POKER not Tweet! They tell the world, "how many chips they have, how they are currently grinding, how they are going all in or about to be busted". Even more alarming is a lot of these people are tweeting from of all places, the World Series of Poker! Not surprised when I see their tweet: "I have just been busted out". What do they expect?

Using a mobile phone whilst driving a car is extremely dangerous we are told. Similarly incompatible are poker tables and Twitter Twits, although these usually represent danger to themselves only. Twittering in my opinion equates to loss of concentration and foreshadows danger even if done during a break from the table. There is a bonus though, for those who follow and don't Tweet. Make sure you are following the Tilting Twitter Twit on your poker table and you are sure to know their next move. Be a follower whilst playing - avoid being a Twit!

Feel free to follow me on twitter - HotAusChick is my twitter name – I can assure you however I won’t be playing online poker or at the World Series of Poker and tweeting!

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