Haven't Felt Like Writing Lately - Negreanu's Blog

Daniel Negreanu's Blog
November 5, 2006
Haven't Felt Like
Writing Lately
Negreanu speaks about
playing poker at Bellagio

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November 5, 2006

Lately I've been tapping into my inner child. Watching lots of sports, playing
video games, going to movies. Nothing adult about anything I've been doing
recently and I'm loving it!

Well, that's not entirely true as I did do one "adult thing" this week. I
attended the WSOP Player Advisory Council meeting at Caesar's Palace. We
met for a solid five hour meeting covering a wide variety of topics.

Unfortunately, I can't discuss any of the things we talked about in our
meeting. I will say that I went into the meeting slightly pessimistic, but when
5:00pm rolled around I felt like a ton of progress was made.
Running the WSOP is an extremely difficult task, but the people that will be in
charge of running the 2007 WSOP are extremely competent and dedicated to
making sure that it's an even bigger success than the 2006 WSOP.

*************************************************************

Later that night a group of us went to dinner at Agave, across from Red Rock,
and then headed over to Red Rock to watch Borat. I have always been a
huge fan of Da Ali G show and think the HBO show was brilliant.

While I really enjoyed the movie, I felt like the HBO show was better. Many of
the funny things Borat does, the real stuff, goes into great detail in Da Ali G
show, but those same type of bits seemed to be cut short in the movie.

Early on in the film, when Borat is supposedly in Kazakhstan I thought I
recognized the language being spoken. Then I realized, dude, that's
Romania! They were speaking Romanian! I thought that was pretty neat.

*************************************************************

On Saturday night I spent the entire night on the couch watching the hockey
games. I had a fantasy pool night which is always a ton of fun. I actually
monitor a ticker in the NHL Forum at FCP.

New in the forum there, I've also decided to make my hockey bets public. I'm
not actually betting any money on the games at all, but started with a "fun"
$10,000 bankroll and bet $500 a game. I had a big night on Saturday hitting
the Maple Leafs +2.52 as well as a gimme prop bet of U 0.5 points for Maxim
Afinegonov +2.70. I have my bankroll up to $11,670 right now. To check out
past bets and future bets go to the NHL Forum.

*************************************************************

I watched another movie that I had in my collection. Actually, Lori and I were
planning on watching a movie so I picked six DVD's, she narrowed them
down to two, then I picked. We had King of New York, Inside Man, Pearl
Harbor, Hotel Rwanda, The Saint, and Broken Flowers.

Lori narrowed it down to Inside Man and Pearl Harbor. I bought that movie
years ago so I figured, let's go with Pearl Harbor. A loooooong movie with
two disks.

I liked the movie. I thought Ben Affleck was really good in that role. In
general, I think he is much better suited to those types of roles rather than
comedy and the like.

Anyway, it's a pretty powerful film. I also watched the extras. They showed
some of the real survivors talking about that day. It was touching.

*************************************************************

What else... oh yeah, video games! I've been getting back into my other
passion. For my last birthday Lori bought me Dance Dance Revolution and the
game pad to go with it. I was instantly addicted. I look like a complete
buffoon doing it, but I danced on that think for over two straight hours. I was
sweating like an absolute pig! It's actually a decent workout. The next day,
and even know for that matter, my calves are destroyed.

After I got tired of that, I decided to try out a game called Grand Theft Auto
III... this game is for kids??? Wow, that's pretty scary, lol. The game was a lot
of fun, but I have to say, I just wouldn't be comfortable having kids playing it.
The game is pretty raw. Hookers, killing cops, etc.

*************************************************************

Oh man, I almost forgot! I actually played at the Bellagio since my last blog.
Here is a little rundown:

The game was $2000-$4000 mixed games. Hold'em, Omaha H/L, Razz, Stud,
Stud 8 or better, Stud H/L Regular, Pot Limit Omaha, 2-7 triple draw. The
lineup looked like:

Me, Patrik Antonious, Ralph Perry, Doyle Brunson, Jennifer Harman, Eli Elezra,
and Ted Forrest.

I shot out ahead for most of the night despite missing one bet on the very
first hand, and then missing a check a few hands later, both against Doyle. In
Omaha 8 or better, I checked heads up against Doyle with AK26 on a board
of A 3 7 J 9 with three diamonds. I had Aces with a King kicker and a 2-6 low.
When Doyle checked I should have value bet it because he turned over an
AQ58. Had him beat both ways and he would have called. $4000 down the
drain.

That same round I played another pot with Doyle. This time it was a multi-
way pot and I was on the button with 9-J-Q-K with the Kc Jc. The flop was
pretty big for me: 9c 10s 4c. Doyle bet the flop and I raised it. Everyone else
folded. The turn came the 3c and Doyle led out- I just called.
The river came the Jd and Doyle checked. I should have checked based on
the way Doyle played it. Instead, I bet, got raised, and paid it off. He had Ac
2c.

I lost a few hands with the second nuts on the evening. Nevertheless, I
found myself ahead about $80,000 after four hours of play thanks to a
monster triple draw pot that I stole:

Patrik raised, Doyle re-raised, Eli called, and I defended my blind with 3-4-6-7-
7 (not a good play by the way). Eli drew 3?? I drew one, Patrik two, and
Doyle one.

On the first draw I caught a 9 which is actually what I was hoping to catch, a
9 or an 8. With so many low cards out I figured that it would be tough for
anyone to make a hand. We all checked in the dark to Doyle who bet. Eli
called, I raised, Patrik re-raised, Doyle folded, Eli called, I re-raised, Patrik re-
raised Eli called and I called.

Eli took two??? Gamble gamble, lol! I stood pat hoping that Patrik would
break his hand- he didn't. Eli checked, I checked, Patrik bet, and Eli called. I
wasn't going to call. It was pretty clear that Patrik had me beat. However, I
didn't think he made a 7. I put him on a rough 8 based on the way the hand
played out.

So, I decided to make a play for the pot, check-raising it to $8000. It was the
last chip I planned on putting in the pot and my goal was to knock Patrik out
while going heads up against Eli who was obviously still drawing. Patrik
thought for a year and a half before finally letting go the best hand.

Eli called... and drew 2 more!!! LOL, gamble, gamble, Eli. He missed his hand,
and I took it down with a 9-7.

Eli got me in a later triple draw hand, though, when short handed he made a
big hand against me. On the button I had 2-3-4-5. Eli stood pat on the first
draw out of the big blind. On the second draw I caught the 6h. So naturally, I
was hoping to catch a "three across heart." If you aren't a squeezer, a three
across means that when you look at the side of the card you’ll see three
pips. That means your card has to be a 6, 7, or an 8.

If I caught a three across heart, it would have to be the 7 or the 8 since I
just discarded the 6. To my surprise... it was a three across heart! Eli bet,
and I raised. After he re-raised, I had to hope it was the 7 and not the 8. I
looked back and it was the 8. Eli crushed me with a dealt pat 7. Wow.

I had one other interesting decision in Omaha H/L. I limped in from first
position with As-2s-3-4. Jennifer raised from the button with AAQ6 and Ted
called from the blind. I decided to re-raise and both players called.

The flop came A-7-7 with two hearts. Ted checked, I checked, and Jenn bet.
Something told me she flopped a full house. Ted called and I called with the
nut low draw.

The turn was the 9h. Again, Jenn bet and we both called. The river was a 6,
Ted checked, I checked the nut low, and Jenn bet. Ted called and it was
decision time.

If Ted or Jenn had the nut low raising here would cost me money. Also, if I
raise and Jenn re-raises with what I suspected was a full house, would Ted
call with anything but the nut low?

I decided to just call and Jennifer and I split the pot. I still think it was the
right play, though, as Ted would have likely folded anyway.

In the last two hours I didn't really win a pot and after a sic hour session I
ended up $69,500 loser. A modest loss at those stakes, but still annoying
since I was winning the whole night.

Ok, this blog be long enough now... time to go.

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