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| Daniel Negreanu's Poker Blog |
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| 18 a Day |
June 7, 2006
I'm addicted in a big way. I eat, sleep, breathe golf. I even dream about it. I
dread the thought of it getting dark so I can't play anymore. Nothing else
even matters to me right now, it's all about improving my golf game:
May 31: I ended up playing 36 holes that Wednesday. The first 18 I played
poorly but noticed that I was playing better on the last few holes so I
decided to play another 18 with my new caddy. That round went very well
and gave me a big time confidence boost: 54-47=101.
June 1: I played a round at TPC Summerlin with a who's who of professional
poker players. In fact, we had so many people come out we had to play two
groups.
I lost a little bit on the golf course and as soon as the round was done I had
to head across town to do a voice over for an upcoming episode of MTV Diary
that they did on me.
As soon as that was over I met up with E-DOG, Gavin, and a few of the boys
for a late night round at Angel Park's Cloud Nine course that is lit up so you
can play late. It's an easy par 3 course with terribly rough greens.
I didn't hit the ball too well there either but it didn't put a dent in my wallet at
all really. Once we were done playing nine holes we decided to try the putt
putt course.
This isn't your ordinary putt putt course, mind you, this putt putt course
boasts several par threes that offer dog leg lefts, bunkers, etc. which require
an array of funky shots.
It was a lot of fun, but it was costing me a little bit of dough. With about 6
holes to play, Jenn and Marco dropped by to say hello and then she too got
in on the action, getting a stroke a hole from Erick. By the way, I liked her
side and she won easy!
The fun all started on the back nine. It was past closing time and the
sprinklers were on. So now, not only did you have to line up your putt, but
you had to hit it and then duck under the water that was flying at you from
three different directions.
After a while I said, "Screw it," and ended up getting drenched. So drenched
that I had to drive home with my shirt off. It was all a ton of fun, I think we all
felt like little kids playing outside with the hose or something. We were all
giggling and having fun with it.
June 2: More Golf. Once again, we all met up at TPC Summerlin, and once
again I had a rough start on the front nine. Virtually every round I play, the
front nine is where I have trouble. Once I've got nine holes under my belt I
start to play a little better.
The first nine got me off on the wrong foot but I picked it up on the back to
minimize the damage.
From there I stopped over at Cecilia Reyes house for her birthday party. She
reminded me that this was the fourth straight year I made it out to her
birthday party. That would make the longest active streak for me!
June 3: Golf, golf, golf. I played another 18 and then hit the range for a
couple of hours. I had Patty buy me into the WPT tournament the next day so
I wouldn't have to worry about heading down there.
June 4: I woke up in time for the poker tournament and should have been
thinking about poker, but that's not what happened. I dreamt about golf all
night long.
When I got to Mandalay Bay I found myself practicing my swing in between
hands. It was bizarre, but since we were playing so high on the golf course
the tournament felt "small" to me. A million dollars if you WIN the tournament
is nice, but anything less and it would just seem like a good day on the golf
course.
Nonetheless, I tried really hard to focus and my mind was pretty clear. I was
well rested and felt pretty focused. I got off to a decent start increasing my
stack about 50% to 30,000. I then lost a pot to Gavin where I had aces up to
his flush, but bounced back from that the very next hand beating Gavin with
top pair top kicker in a good pot.
I made one excellent call with middle pair which cost me half my stack. I
picked up on a tell and went with my read.
Finally, at about round 4 I moved in on a guy with 88 and he called me with
66. The flop came Q-Q-10, and the turn was a 6. It didn't bother me a bit,
because in the back of my mind I knew that I was only two minutes from the
Callaway Golf Center and I could play the par 3 course there.
Before I did that I got a bucket of 100 balls and headed to the range. After
hitting those I went to the chipping green and hit probably another 100 balls
there.
I checked my watch and saw that it was almost 9:00pm which meant the
others would be almost done for the day so I'd have a chance to play a
round. Josh Arieh, Robert Mizrachi, J.C.Tran, and Nam Le all showed up and
we discussed strokes.
I didn't play well at all, but when all the money was on the line I came
through like a champ. On the ninth hole I hit a chip over a bunker to within a
foot of the cup for an up and down par. Josh then says, "How much I gotta
lay you to do that again?"
"I dunno, I'll take 5-1." I said. We haggled back and forth with Josh offering
3.5 to 1. Finally we agreed on 4-1. Josh and Robert both had action on the
don't. This time I hit my chip to about five feet from the cup which gave me a
chance. From there, I just drained the putt and won all the money on the
day, boo ya!
June 5: I called everyone that morning wondering what time we were
playing. Then I heard that TPC Summerlin was closed on Mondays, oh no!!!
The guys actually wanted to play poker. Poker? You've got to be kidding me, I
had absolutely no interest in spending my afternoon playing poker.
When my money game fell through I called my old buddy Sam from Toronto.
Sam and I grew up in the same poker game and were considered the two
best players in the game for years.
He's a member at Spanish Trail which is supposed to be much easier than
TPC Summerlin but it didn't look that way to me. I forced all of the guys to
play higher than they'd ever played before and they obliged.
I hit the ball "ok" on the front (54) but lit it up on the back with a 47 for a
54-47=101. That got the cheese easily. After the round I had a beer in the
clubhouse with Allen and Melissa before heading home to bed. I've been
getting to bed by 2:00am the latest, which is good for me.
June 6: It was back to the money game at TPC Summerlin. Only this time, the
greens were a mess. They looked like sandy beaches! They were working on
the greens so putting, something I did very well the day before, would be
extremely difficult.
When I got to the course a ton of poker players were already there
practicing. Ivey, Arieh, Greenstien, Lindgren, David Grey, Mike Sexton, Martin
de Knijff, and Doyle and Dewey who joined us on the back nine.
We split the groups into two. I played with Barry, David, and Mike who all
played lights out. Luckily I played pretty well so I kept it close.
Then, on number nine I had the whole of a lifetime. It was a 500+ yard par 5
and I sliced my drive out to the right but had a shot out of the rough to the
fairway.
Then I absolutely pummeled a 3-wood to within 80 yards of the pin. From
there, I pulled out a pitching wedge and followed through nicely as my ball
neared the hole.
I was getting a stroke from everybody on this hole so I felt great about
getting it close. A two putt from there would probably win, while a one putt
would cinch it.
Then I noticed that the ball kept rolling... into the cup! I made an eagle! A
freakin' eagle! With a stroke, that's a 2 on a par 5, lol... wow, what a feeling.
My first eagle ever. In fact, it's the first birdie or eagle I've made since picking
up golf again. I just skipped right over birdie and headed right to eagle, lol.
That eagle, coupled with a 9 and an 8 had me shooting 52 on the front. I
shot a 52 on the back also which was good enough to take a small win for
the day as the others all shot great as well.
From there I headed to Bellagio to square up the figures a little bit and to
play for an hour or so before picking up Lori at the airport. The poker game
was secondary to the golf talk. He needs this many, that guy needs that
many... who'll team with who, blah, blah, blah.
In the meantime, in a 1.5 hour session I picked up $210,000 and had to go to
the airport. I picked up Lori and now I'm home. I haven't seen her since our
trip to North Carolina. That's quite a long time.
Tomorrow the plan is to take a day off and relax....not! No chance. I'm
headed out there again tomorrow at noon and am hoping to break 100.
Read More Entries from Daniel Negreanu's Poker Blog
I'm addicted in a big way. I eat, sleep, breathe golf. I even dream about it. I
dread the thought of it getting dark so I can't play anymore. Nothing else
even matters to me right now, it's all about improving my golf game:
May 31: I ended up playing 36 holes that Wednesday. The first 18 I played
poorly but noticed that I was playing better on the last few holes so I
decided to play another 18 with my new caddy. That round went very well
and gave me a big time confidence boost: 54-47=101.
June 1: I played a round at TPC Summerlin with a who's who of professional
poker players. In fact, we had so many people come out we had to play two
groups.
I lost a little bit on the golf course and as soon as the round was done I had
to head across town to do a voice over for an upcoming episode of MTV Diary
that they did on me.
As soon as that was over I met up with E-DOG, Gavin, and a few of the boys
for a late night round at Angel Park's Cloud Nine course that is lit up so you
can play late. It's an easy par 3 course with terribly rough greens.
I didn't hit the ball too well there either but it didn't put a dent in my wallet at
all really. Once we were done playing nine holes we decided to try the putt
putt course.
This isn't your ordinary putt putt course, mind you, this putt putt course
boasts several par threes that offer dog leg lefts, bunkers, etc. which require
an array of funky shots.
It was a lot of fun, but it was costing me a little bit of dough. With about 6
holes to play, Jenn and Marco dropped by to say hello and then she too got
in on the action, getting a stroke a hole from Erick. By the way, I liked her
side and she won easy!
The fun all started on the back nine. It was past closing time and the
sprinklers were on. So now, not only did you have to line up your putt, but
you had to hit it and then duck under the water that was flying at you from
three different directions.
After a while I said, "Screw it," and ended up getting drenched. So drenched
that I had to drive home with my shirt off. It was all a ton of fun, I think we all
felt like little kids playing outside with the hose or something. We were all
giggling and having fun with it.
June 2: More Golf. Once again, we all met up at TPC Summerlin, and once
again I had a rough start on the front nine. Virtually every round I play, the
front nine is where I have trouble. Once I've got nine holes under my belt I
start to play a little better.
The first nine got me off on the wrong foot but I picked it up on the back to
minimize the damage.
From there I stopped over at Cecilia Reyes house for her birthday party. She
reminded me that this was the fourth straight year I made it out to her
birthday party. That would make the longest active streak for me!
June 3: Golf, golf, golf. I played another 18 and then hit the range for a
couple of hours. I had Patty buy me into the WPT tournament the next day so
I wouldn't have to worry about heading down there.
June 4: I woke up in time for the poker tournament and should have been
thinking about poker, but that's not what happened. I dreamt about golf all
night long.
When I got to Mandalay Bay I found myself practicing my swing in between
hands. It was bizarre, but since we were playing so high on the golf course
the tournament felt "small" to me. A million dollars if you WIN the tournament
is nice, but anything less and it would just seem like a good day on the golf
course.
Nonetheless, I tried really hard to focus and my mind was pretty clear. I was
well rested and felt pretty focused. I got off to a decent start increasing my
stack about 50% to 30,000. I then lost a pot to Gavin where I had aces up to
his flush, but bounced back from that the very next hand beating Gavin with
top pair top kicker in a good pot.
I made one excellent call with middle pair which cost me half my stack. I
picked up on a tell and went with my read.
Finally, at about round 4 I moved in on a guy with 88 and he called me with
66. The flop came Q-Q-10, and the turn was a 6. It didn't bother me a bit,
because in the back of my mind I knew that I was only two minutes from the
Callaway Golf Center and I could play the par 3 course there.
Before I did that I got a bucket of 100 balls and headed to the range. After
hitting those I went to the chipping green and hit probably another 100 balls
there.
I checked my watch and saw that it was almost 9:00pm which meant the
others would be almost done for the day so I'd have a chance to play a
round. Josh Arieh, Robert Mizrachi, J.C.Tran, and Nam Le all showed up and
we discussed strokes.
I didn't play well at all, but when all the money was on the line I came
through like a champ. On the ninth hole I hit a chip over a bunker to within a
foot of the cup for an up and down par. Josh then says, "How much I gotta
lay you to do that again?"
"I dunno, I'll take 5-1." I said. We haggled back and forth with Josh offering
3.5 to 1. Finally we agreed on 4-1. Josh and Robert both had action on the
don't. This time I hit my chip to about five feet from the cup which gave me a
chance. From there, I just drained the putt and won all the money on the
day, boo ya!
June 5: I called everyone that morning wondering what time we were
playing. Then I heard that TPC Summerlin was closed on Mondays, oh no!!!
The guys actually wanted to play poker. Poker? You've got to be kidding me, I
had absolutely no interest in spending my afternoon playing poker.
When my money game fell through I called my old buddy Sam from Toronto.
Sam and I grew up in the same poker game and were considered the two
best players in the game for years.
He's a member at Spanish Trail which is supposed to be much easier than
TPC Summerlin but it didn't look that way to me. I forced all of the guys to
play higher than they'd ever played before and they obliged.
I hit the ball "ok" on the front (54) but lit it up on the back with a 47 for a
54-47=101. That got the cheese easily. After the round I had a beer in the
clubhouse with Allen and Melissa before heading home to bed. I've been
getting to bed by 2:00am the latest, which is good for me.
June 6: It was back to the money game at TPC Summerlin. Only this time, the
greens were a mess. They looked like sandy beaches! They were working on
the greens so putting, something I did very well the day before, would be
extremely difficult.
When I got to the course a ton of poker players were already there
practicing. Ivey, Arieh, Greenstien, Lindgren, David Grey, Mike Sexton, Martin
de Knijff, and Doyle and Dewey who joined us on the back nine.
We split the groups into two. I played with Barry, David, and Mike who all
played lights out. Luckily I played pretty well so I kept it close.
Then, on number nine I had the whole of a lifetime. It was a 500+ yard par 5
and I sliced my drive out to the right but had a shot out of the rough to the
fairway.
Then I absolutely pummeled a 3-wood to within 80 yards of the pin. From
there, I pulled out a pitching wedge and followed through nicely as my ball
neared the hole.
I was getting a stroke from everybody on this hole so I felt great about
getting it close. A two putt from there would probably win, while a one putt
would cinch it.
Then I noticed that the ball kept rolling... into the cup! I made an eagle! A
freakin' eagle! With a stroke, that's a 2 on a par 5, lol... wow, what a feeling.
My first eagle ever. In fact, it's the first birdie or eagle I've made since picking
up golf again. I just skipped right over birdie and headed right to eagle, lol.
That eagle, coupled with a 9 and an 8 had me shooting 52 on the front. I
shot a 52 on the back also which was good enough to take a small win for
the day as the others all shot great as well.
From there I headed to Bellagio to square up the figures a little bit and to
play for an hour or so before picking up Lori at the airport. The poker game
was secondary to the golf talk. He needs this many, that guy needs that
many... who'll team with who, blah, blah, blah.
In the meantime, in a 1.5 hour session I picked up $210,000 and had to go to
the airport. I picked up Lori and now I'm home. I haven't seen her since our
trip to North Carolina. That's quite a long time.
Tomorrow the plan is to take a day off and relax....not! No chance. I'm
headed out there again tomorrow at noon and am hoping to break 100.
Read More Entries from Daniel Negreanu's Poker Blog
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