Posts Tagged ‘Vegas’
Sharon Osborne Colon Cancer Foundation Charity Poker Tournament
The first weekend of February, I was invited to play in this tournament which took place at the Hard Rock in Vegas. Saturday morning, Katie, myself, Shaun Sipos (Melrose Place) and Nicholas Gonzales (Melrose Place, Mental, lots of things) all met at Burbank airport for bloody marys and mimosas. A few minutes later, we see Tiffany Michelle and Joe Reitman, who were on the same flight. Already I know it’s going to be a good night.
Katie and I had planned on flying in for the tourney and taking the last flight out from Vegas to Burbank, which was about 9 pm. We all arrive to Hard Rock and have a quick dinner/drinks at Pink Taco. Yum. After dinner, we go to the tournament room where I find at my table the two Melrose Place boys, Lou Diamond Phillips, Cheryl Hines (LOVE Curb Your Enthusiasm). I was pretty excited just to listen to Cheryl talk. She’s hilarious and she’s not a bad poker player either.
I started off playing pretty tight. These charity tournaments normally have lots of people that really have no clue how to play poker. I figured it was better for some of those people to be weeded out before I really started to play. About an hour into it, I won a pretty big hand against Nicholas Gonzales that gave me a pretty nice stack (thanks Nick). A few hours after that we moved tables and shortly after I was chipleader at my table. By that time, most of the people we were there with had busted and Katie reminded me that our flight leaves in like an hour. At that point, there were 3 tables left and I was probably 6th in chips overall. I decided it was time to shove next hand, if I went out, I was making my flight, if I won, then I would really start playing and change my flight. I shoved with 10 7 spades and had 2 callers (crap!) AQ and KJ. I flopped a set and knocked the 2 people out. I actually did feel bad about that, but that’s gambling.
After that ridiculous play, I got comfortable knowing I was just going to stay the night in Vegas even though I had nothing but the clothes on my back and my purse. Haha. I started playing pretty well. At the final table, there notables such as Sal Masekela (he’s the really cute guy with dreads who does the Daily 10 on E!) Tiffany Michelle, and Sara Jean Underwood (Playmate of the Year). Sara kept shoving, and God bless her, I really don’t think she had a clue what was going on. She was totally just happy to be there. Finally she shoves and I call with KJ and I doubled up. I also took out Sal, which made me pretty sad, because he is just so damn cute. Finally, it came down to me and another guy, who I cannot remember his name. We only played heads up for about 15 minutes, when I shoved with 10 9 clubs. He called with 7 8 and I won with a pair of tens. All in all, I won like 6 bounties, which I gave away to people, and a really nice trophy and some other prizes. It was so cool to win for such a great charity and I gave half my winnings to the Sharon Osborne Foundation. I really hope even that amount helped. It was a fun night. The after party was held at Vanity in the Hard Rock, where I hung with Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho. Love those girls, they’re so fun.
The next morning I flew out to LA and got to watch my SAINTS win the Superbowl. This really could not have been a better weekend.
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My Bad Beat Story
Last week, I tried my game at a competing poker site. I was intrigued by the large presence of pros with illuminated names, including my personal favorite player. It’s good to exercise your options every once in a while, so I gave it a shot.
I played for a few hours on a heads up table with a 6 handed ring game on the side. I was getting deep on the HU table when something interesting came about: On the six handed ring, I found myself with a pair of red jacks (same colour as my digital seat). Third to act, with one call in front, I raised the pot. Only the protective big blind called, and we were off!
All of my concerns about a “big blind special” suckout were gone once I saw the flop of Js-Jc-10c. The big blind bet into me with a solid pot size bet. I was obviously not folding. I called his bet. The turn brought a 7s, which made no difference to my cozy home called the nuts. This time, I decided to throw a little bet out. I made it a whopping 1/3 of the pot and was given an early birthday present when the big blind pushed his remaining 186$ into the mi-CALL! His cards flip and I am shown 8c9c. He is no doubt feeling silly about his massive overbet, but there is still one card to come. You know exactly what card it was because you’re reading this message on absolute’s bad beat blog. However, just for closure, the last card was a 7c, giving him his straight flush. I have never been as excited as I was in that moment, because although I had lost the pot (which is kind of annoying), I was the new founder of a bad beat jackpot!
I couldn’t wait to call my friends and tell them! I could finally buy the digital camera I had been eyeing for months; I could pay off my student loans; I could go on a nice trip, five star all the way; buy a new wardrobe; I was on top of the world! Oh wait…nevermind. Apparently, not all sites have a bad beat jackpot. So, instead of a hefty new lump sum of cash, I was the new founder of a bad beat suckout tale which cost me the same as a return flight to Vegas. And to think, if only I had been playing on ABSOLUTE, my life would have been changed forever.
I can now say, with absolute certainty, that poker is meant to be played on ABSOLUTEPOKER.COM.
On the way back to Vegas
I am currently in the car, about 100 miles outside Las Vegas. I just finished up a great skiing trip with my friends Jake, Kandis, and Heather. The drive is not spectacular, but the story of the trip is a little more interesting to read about.
It all started at 8pm Thursday night when my friend Heather asked me if I wanted to join her and 2 friends and go skiing in Utah for 3 days/2 nights. I ended up declining at first, because I did not feel like making an 8 hr drive to go skiing for 3 days. A few days later I had just had a pretty bad Sunday, losing a lot of money. I cashed in the UBOC main event, though, and had a few other deep runs in majors but no big final tables. I was feeling kind of bummed and feeling like I needed to get away from Malibu and go relax (crazy I know, Malibu is awesome to relax) So I texted Heather and asked her if she had found a 4th person yet, which she said no. I decided to go.
I packed up and left Malibu at midnight, got into Vegas at 430am, and got a little bit of sleep as we were slated to leave at 9am. If you guys don’t know this about me I have a horrible time functioning when I get less than 8 hours of sleep, so I was already dreading this day. Luckily for me, Heathers friend Kandis had drank copious amounts of alcohol the night before and did not get up until noon. So I ended up getting around 6-7 hrs sleep, enough to tide me over for the day.
We arrived at the cabin at like 7pm, it was a nice small 2 BR cabin I feel like was built for dwarves, but it would do for a couple nights. We all settled in, drank, played some games, and relaxed the first night there and then I went upstairs and fell asleep, needing to get enough sleep for the next day.
The slopes were about average at Brian Head, but there were VERY few people on the mountain which I love. There were no wait for the lines, nobody to worry about when doing jumps or turning, except for Kandis, she’s a liability with her Ipod in. Here’s a little video blog I did which I think might be the first blog done this way.
The flip camera I had ran out of battery 3 minutes in, I did a 1440 jump off a huge jump.. its a shame the camera ran out of juice.
After skiing, we were all pretty tired, I took the night off from drinking and watched a bit of TV and then fell asleep around midnight. In the morning, they decided to just hang out and relax and I decided to go out for a few more runs before we left Utah. I got in 4 runs, and liked the ski’s I rented so much I decided to buy them, so they are sitting in the back of the truck right now. The trip took a toll on the girls too:
I’m going to take most of the week off from poker, as I feel like I need a little break after playing for a few months without many breaks. I will be ready and geared up to go next week.
Also, Trishelle beat me in a football bet so now I’m forced to take her out to dinner. Ugh…
She will also be joining me at an event I am doing in the end of Feb, I will be blogging about it soon I am sure. I will give you a little preview of it now, it involves free beer, wings, poker, and a bunch of beautiful women. I like to be a pioneer what can I say 
That’s all for now,
-Matt Vengrin
Happy Holidays everyone!
I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying this time of year. I’ve had another busy week and all I can say is I’m ready for some very special family time! Last week I worked everyday either on photo shoots or shooting for Poker2Nite. Has anyone had a chance to watch it yet? What do you guys think? Our team has lots of fun thing planned for the next few episodes so make sure to tune in! Check Fox Sports schedule for your local time and listings.
It is so nice to have absolutely nothing on my plate for this week. My sister and her husband are flying into Vegas and I’m so excited to see her. I know it’s only been a little over a month, but it feels like ages to me. After that on Wednesday I’ll be flying home with everyone to see my mom. I’ve been working out like crazy just so I can pig out a little more for our Christmas dinner. Is that weird? My mom is the best cook and I’ve been day dreaming about it for weeks now. Is anyone doing anything extra special this week?
As for today while I wait for my sis to fly in I’ll be doing my last bit of Christmas shopping and wrapping presents. At least I didn’t wait till the day before like I usually do. If y’all are still shopping and looking for some last minute gifts or just want to buy a little something for yourself I recommend checking out www.ksino.com! We are running a special Holiday Promotion this week — A $42 TEE (both Men’s and Women’s) for $25 thru XMAS Eve. COUPON CODE: LACEYXMASTEE to use thru 11pm on XMAS EVE. Check out the site and let me know what shirts you like and I’ll make sure to run fun specials for you guys on the things you’d like to wear.
Also if you’d like to follow my year end wrap up for 2009 you can find it on my website www.LaceyPoker.com. I’ve had a lot of fun writing about this amazing year and I think you’ll get a laugh out of my whirlwind experiences. Hope you all have a safe and exciting week with family and friends. See ya at the tables!
Xoxo
Lacey
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Being Happy…
Have you thought about doing something to make YOU happy lately? If not I highly suggest it. So often we lose track of our lives when they are based on pleasing others, and we forget about ourselves.
If you feel like this, set aside some time this week for yourself. If you are busy with work and family, set aside one hour where its just you and a book, or you and a tv- whatever you like.
What makes me happy personally is hearing the ocean, but now after a few weeks of hearing it non stop I am ready to move back to Vegas.
Just kidding, the ocean makes me calm. Before coming to Malibu, I occasionally had trouble sleeping, tossing and turning for hours on end. Luckily I did not have a job I had to be up at 7am for, but still it was very unpleasant.
Now that I have my place, I sleep like a baby every night because I am happy here and I did this for myself.
So this week, do something for yourself, it will feel good- trust me.
-Matt Vengrin
“poker with NUMB3RS…and some other famous people”
Yes, i’m talking about the TV show, I know I’m super clever 
It’s only the first week of December and it’s already pretty busy. I was in Vegas Dec 2-4. I stayed at the Venetian, which I actually really like. The rooms are big and it’s right near the Palazzo and Wynn and all the places I like. I had such a fun time. I have to tell you about this meal I had. I’m probably going to talk about food in every single blog, but I love going out to eat. There’s a place in the Wynn called Alex that is amazing. It’s pretty nice. They give you a pre set menu and you get to choose each course from the list.
The dinner starts out with the chef sending us each his creation of amuse bouche (that literally means “to amuse” as in your mouth). It’s like these 4 creative little mini appetizers. There was this cute little spoon full of soup, there was this tuna tartar thingy, a ceviche, and a delicious fried lobster bite. Then we had an appetizer, which I ordered this risotto and they had the tiniest little crab you’ve ever seen on the top of it. It was so weird. The waiter said you just eat the whole thing…like claws and little eyeballs and everything. So i did. It was crunchy, but not horrible. The thing about this place is, in between every course, they would bring you another amuse bouche. So it was like eating double the food a normal human eats. By the time I got to my main course, which was sole filet, I was completely stuffed. Then we have dessert, which I barely made it through, and after that, they served us more dessert! When we were done, I felt like I was going to have to be wheeled out of the place, they give me a “going away gift” which was…more food. Bah! It was delicious though.
After that I managed to pull myself together to go out to Tryst in the Wynn. Thursday nights are really good nights over there, so we got a table and danced and hung out. I love going out in Vegas! We went to a few other places late night and ended up getting back at around 6 am. Needless to say I wasn’t feeling great the next day.
Saturday night I flew back to LA for a charity poker tournament at this great house up in the hills in Culver City. It was “casino night in Marrakesh” and Joanna Krupa from Dancing With The Stars was the host. The event was to benefit the Children’s Starlight Foundation, which is a great charity for kids who are seriously ill. There were a few notable
people at the event, including Katerina Graham (Vampire Diaries), Nicholas Gonzalez (Melrose Place), Alimi Ballard and David Krumholtz (Numb3rs) also there were poker players Adam “Roothlus” and Amit “Amak”, who I went with along with my best friend Katie.
The poker room was Moroccon themed with all these pretty fabrics and colors so it was pretty cool to play there. What’s even better is that we got to play with the main guy from Numb3rs, David Krumholtz. The cute one with the brown curly hair and we also played with Nick Gonzalez, who I didn’t know was on Melrose Place! Both of the guys actually really knew how to play poker and it was interesting to see how into it they both were. Nick has played in the WSOP and he also made the final table at the WPT celeb invitational. This tournament was more of a social thing for me. For some reason, I couldn’t pay attention. It was probably all the cute boys at our table. Haha. I ended up practically giving all of my chips away to the Numb3rs guy. The winner of this tournament got a trip for 2 to Cabo San Lucas and also to get to be on set of the filming of the show Numb3rs. That is a really cool prize and of course, Amak wins. I totally love him, but I know for a fact that he’s not going to go on that trip. Haha. I think he should like auction it off for charity or something.
So the tournament went well and afterwards we all went to this bar in Hollywood called Happy Endings for our friend Adam’s going away party. It was a bunch of our friends and I honestly haven’t had that much fun out in LA in a long time. We actually DID dance on tables and no one yelled at us! Good times.
The following day, I hopped a flight to Phoenix, AZ to play another little poker dealy. It was more of a fun thing. I stayed at the Biltmore, which is a beautiful hotel on a golf course, but I didn’t get to play because it poured down raining. I flew back into LA the following night to find it FREEZING! I can’t believe how cold it is right now over here! I love it! Can’t wait for the holidays…
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Update on everything Matt Vengrin:
Its been kind of slow the past few months after the WSOP, but thats the way I like it. I have been involved in a lot of stuff thats coming up in the next few months which i am really excited about.
I just looked at houses about an hour ago here in Vegas. Every house had aspects I loved and aspects I didnt. I am basically looking for a house with a big backyard with trees and a pool/spa and some sort of waterfall. I love the ocean, and since the nearest ocean is a 4 hour drive, I have to settle for a nice waterfall when I am here in Vegas. I found one great house with the perfect backyard, but had a few interior problems, then I saw a house with a perfect inside, but the backyard was lacking. But it was my first time going out and looking so im sure I will find my dream house soon. The market is great in Las Vegas right now, and since I spend alot of time here it makes sense to buy.
I picked up a nice win in poker over the weekend too. Taking down a 100 dollar buyin for approx 13k. It had about 640 players. Let me tell you, theres no greater feeling in poker for me then taking down a big tournament, especially on a sunday which was when this one was. When I won I let out a huge “Yesssssss” and my roomate was like what happened? It feels so good to get a win because it gives me great confidence coming into September and October which are both big months for poker culminating in the Aruba Poker Classic.
The Aruba Poker Classic is my favorite tournament of the year, its lush greenery, an ocean, drinks, great people, and plenty to do on the island. What more can you ask for? I urge anyone to try to get there any way you can. Fly, drive a car-boat, or even swim from Miami. Last year I went scuba diving at a reef and saw some amazing fish. Including one that resembled a snake which kind of caught me by surprise. I also went golfing, and ate at some great steakhouses. (If you love steak, they get their beef from Argentina, which has by far the best steak if ever tasted) If you dont want to direct buy, theres a great satalite happening september 13th on Ultimate Bet, which guarantees 50 seats, thats a great way to win your way in cheap.
Thats all for now, good luck at the tables!
-Matt Vengrin
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