Liv Boeree

World Series baby!!!! I’m in Vegas at long last after a horrendous journey out involving a six hour layover in San Francisco am into the swing of things already.  I’ve played two events: the $1k stimulus and the $1500 NLH so far.  The $1k event was literally insane with over 6000 entrants and despite the fact that they lost nearly 90% of the field on day 1 I got through with 15,000 in chips.  The money bubble burst before you could really blink the next day and I managed to grind up to 30k before going bust in 356th for $2450. The $1500 didn’t go so well so it shall not get discussed!  Nonetheless, one cash out of two tourneys so far is better than a slap in the face!

However, my really big news was that as soon as I got off the plane my agent Eric greeted me with a big smile and a handful of shiny gold and black logos saying Ultimatebet! “Welcome to the team, kid” he says.  It turns out that whilst I was in the air the decision was made that I should no longer be a spokesmodel for Absolute but instead be moved onto the player’s brand that is UB. I’m so ridiculously excited about this as it is really quite an honour to be on the team with the rest of the players. I might not have as many bracelets as you yet Phil, but they’re coming.  Oh yes.

Anyway, I’m playing the $2k NLH event in a couple of hours so I guess I’d better go and do some kind of exercise.  I mentioned in an article with Pokerlistings that I’m being healthy and not falling into the trap of partying that Vegas and the WSOP can so easily get you with, so I better actually go do something other than lie in bed in front of the laptop ‘til the cards are in the air.

So I guess I should talk about the main event! The tournament was so ridiculously deep (100k starting stack) and well structured that day 1 genuinely didn’t matter.  This was fortunate as I was more card-dead than is humanly possible, plus I was being tortured by Carlos Mortensen (an amazing player) so I spent most of the day in lockdown observation mode, and got through to day 2 with 87,000.  Day 2 was considerably better with a much more favourable table draw (except for Scotty Nugyen and Adam Levy) and I ended up on 297,000.  Day 3 started off well but then went slowly downhill with tables from hell (Jennifer Harman and Kenny Tran on my left for a while) and it nearly all went horribly wrong on the end of day 3 when I was forced to race against Mimi Tran when we were both shortstacked (her JJ vs my AQ).  Fortunately I spiked an Ace and got back up to 350,000 before the day finished with 67 or so left.

Day 4 started reasonably, and before anyone knew it we were on the bubble with 51 left.  My stack was medium-low by this point but there was no way I was going to do something stupid and not make the cash! Fortunately it burst and it was nice to know that I was guaranteed $32,000 for me efforts.  However, I proceeded to go card-dead again and got pretty short when, with 37 left I picked up Kings in third position. Second position, who was also pretty short raised to 40k (he had about 240k and the blinds were 8/16k with 2k ante).  I had 160k so shoved over the top, obv. Imagine my surprise when he insta-called and flipped over 3-4 of hearts!! This IS the World Championships, right??

Sadly, the gods decided to rewards the guy’s idiocy by letting him suck out with both a straight AND a flush, sending me to the rail in 37th but with $42,000 in my pocket.  Very mixed feelings :-$

Hey all, I’m back in London after an awesome month in Vegas playing the Wpt Champs at the Bellagio.  I had gone out there with the intention of playing a few side events and attempting to satellite into the main event, which seemed quite a daunting task considering the buy-in is a hefty $25,000!

I was staying with my friends Katie Lindsay and team UB pro Adam “Roothlus” Levy at their apartment in Panorama towers, which to those not in the know are so full of poker players it’s like living in a very high class dorm room.  It also meant that most evenings would be spent telling the day’s bad beats over cold beers in the communal hottub with a large group of players - an excellent way to relax!

So to the poker itself… things got off to an excellent start with me finishing 7th in the first event - the $1500 NLH for $5600.  Things got even better when I came in 3rd in my next event, also a $1500 NLH for $17,000. Woohoo! The hattrick came with me winning my Main event seat on the first try, damn I love running well! It should also be mentioned that I have discovered the ultimate strategy to win a seat in a super-sat… have a massive, crippling hangover. I had flown the day before to the Revolver Golden Gods awards (a heavy metal awards show - thank you Scott Ian for inviting me!) and had a crazy night of drinking games with various bands before flying back with zero sleep and vodka still in my veins to play the super-sat.  The hangover got progressively worse as the tournament went on which actually made me tighten up and avoid any kind of marginal situation due to the fact that I was about to pass out and/or throw up on my chips.  Before I knew it, the tournament was over and the seat was won. Bingo!

Hello all, I hope 2009 has been behaving itself for you all so far! My new year has been crazy to say the least… I haven’t been home to the UK at all yet due to a very last minute trip Down Under for the Aussie Millions. I decided to go whilst vacationing in Canada after receiving a tasty accommodation offer from the Crown casino where the tourney is held, and boy was it well worth the 15 hour flight.

Upon arriving in Australia the first thing I had to do was go shopping, and fast. You see, I had come straight from skiing in Whistler to the peak of a very hot Australian summer with nothing but thermals, ski-socks and furry boots in tow. Not cool.

Once stocked up on flipflops and sun lotion we (and by we, I mean the usual poker crowd) took to the pool and the beach in style for a bit of “acclimatisation” before hitting the tables. The first event I played was the $1600 Bounty event, which was a standard MTT but with one player on each table nominated to have a $1k bounty on their head. Of course I somehow wound up being a bounty and having every player on the table gunning for it… which I’d complain about if they hadn’t been calling down every value bet with any vague bottom pair they could find. After a couple of days I ended up accruing a very tasty stack which lead me onto the final table, ultimately finishing 7th out of 450 for a tasty payout too.

The main event sadly didn’t go quite as well as I busted out on the last level of day 1… so instead spent the rest of the time watching penguins, trying to surf and getting lost in a forest surrounded by every possible insect and reptile that can kill you. However, I did survive and am now off to New Zealand to kill some time before the LA Poker Classic. Life is hard!