Well, it’s January 1^st, 2008. I think I’m going to go the whole year without partying. I did enough last night to keep me good for the entire year. It started off with a small party at my condo to bring in the New Year with some close friends and watch the fireworks from my balcony. It was maybe the best countdown I’ve ever had. There were about 20 of us and we were crammed onto my balcony and everybody was annihilated! For the last few years I’ve spent my New Years inside of nightclubs. It was so nice to spend ‘08 in a place where I saw Las Vegas shine; and shine it did. The fireworks went on for what seemed like an eternity. It was a beautiful night.

At about 12:30 the posse and I loaded up and headed over to Tao Nightclub to chill with my buddy, Jason Strauss (owner of TAO). He was very gracious in having me and my friends at his table for the evening. We rocked the house! I think it was 5 am when the lights finally came on and we got the hint. We did not want to leave. I don’t know how much tequila I drank but I must have finished an entire bottle of Patron by myself.

I figure I might as well have gone out with a bang. 2007 was a great year and why not start 2008 off properly???

You only live once ladies and gents!

Happy New Year!!!

Antonio

It is Dec 7th and only 1 day until I am only one year away from THIRTY. Wow, just typing out the word thirty hurts. I really like my twenties!!! I’m not remotely anywhere near ready to be rid of them!!! I hope what they say is true about Thirty being the new Twenty!

I am in Vegas getting ready for a night out of god knows what. It’s my birthday celebration so should be a little crazy!

Tomorrow off to San Fran to film episode 12 and 13 of I BET YOU. So close to being done with season 2, this was supposed to be the 2 last episodes but the city of Las Vegas has ordered an additional episode (don’t ask I don’t really understand it myself…word is they want us to bet on things that people don’t know this city has to offer not just what Las Vegas is known for). After that we are DONE with season 2! As much fun as it is filming and experiencing things I thought I would never be doing it is A LOT of work. Phil and I had to give up a lot of poker (including quite a few major tournaments) to film our show. I’m quite stoked to have a TV show with my good buddy. I never really thought about it much, always just felt like we were goofing off but in reality I do get to share a TV show with one of my closest friends! Maybe it’s not so bad after all!

Dinner with the family tomorrow night in San Fran and then off to work and then 29 years old on the 8th. Yuck.

Antonio

I had a fantastic Thanksgiving. The whole family was there and the food this year was the best we’ve ever had. My aunt, Gigi, has been working on this specific type of stuffing for like 10 years and she might have FINALLY perfected it! It got better year by year. It was so freakin’ good; I ate more stuffing than I did turkey! I just love thanksgiving. I spent a lot of time with my grandma, Malak. She is getting pretty old, but as old as she is it’s remarkable how sharp she still remains. It must be surreal to sit in a room and know that you are responsible for the creation of so many people. Between her kids (4 of them) and all the grandkids it adds up. I can’t wait to be a father. Grandfather…not so much! Wow so sick to even think of being that old, but hey, it will get here before I know it.

After Thanksgiving my friends and I went to the Deer Club, a place up in the Morgan Hills Mountains, (secluded from everything) that my friend, Jeff’s family has owned for years. It really is the perfect getaway. Tony (my best friend) is a great driver; great, but also CRAZY! I’ve never been in a car with someone who can drive like him. He is a machine. Since we were on private property and there weren’t any other cars for miles and miles, and there was no chance of getting pulled over, my boy was in rare form. He was going buck wild. In my entire life of being in the car with him behind the wheel I have never felt unsafe. On the way down the mountain Tony ruined his ZERO crash or accident record by losing control around a turn and heading straight into a mountain. Our speed was about 35 or 40mph, head on. WHAM! I saw my whole life flash before my eyes. The air bag popped out (which I didn’t even notice btw until AFTER it was over) and saved me from SERIOUS injury. My glasses were smashed against my face by the airbag and the explosion–airbags burst by an explosion similar to a gunshot– made serious marks on my face. I was bleeding profusely and all in a matter of seconds. It went down way too fast for me to comprehend what had just happened. I rushed out of the car in a state of panic, but kept my cool once I realized that everyone was ok and that I wasn’t dead. It was pretty trippy to say the least. At that very moment I had no idea what my face looked like. The pain wasn’t that bad yet, but that might have been due to the adrenaline rush I was on.  After a while the bleeding stopped and I realized nothing was broken and everything would eventually heal. I’m on day 4 of recovery and things are on the up and up. Thank God, it really could have been so much worse. I’m just happy to be alive. Tony didn’t even get a scratch. So sick I never win!

Yesterday I had a court case where some lady is suing me from 3 years ago (see previous blog). I kind of choked in front of the judge. The facts still remain and I am confident I will win the case, but I was very disappointed by my performance in front of the judge. I like to be in front of crowds, I like to lecture, but somehow I couldn’t pull myself together in the courtroom. I said what I needed to say, but I didn’t say it with pizzazz. I’ll know the verdict by mail in 2 weeks.

Adios for now,

Antonio

Thanksgiving is by far my favorite holiday of the year. No matter what the whole family gets together and hangs out. There is nothing quite like having your entire family in one spot. It’s amazing no matter what you accomplish in life no matter how much money you make, no matter how many tournaments you win, if you don’t have that kind of love then none of it means ANYTHING.

I am just about to go to the airport to catch a flight back home (San Fran) for Thanksgiving. Soooo very excited. I miss my old stumping grounds. I really actually grew up in San Jose and then moved to the city in my early twenties. Wow I feel SO incredilbly old describing my EARLY twenties. Holy shit. I am old. Birthday is in a couple of weeks and then before you know it ill be thirty. So sickening. I hope what they say about 30 being the new 20 is right!!!

On Monday I have to be in court in San Francisco for something so incredibly ridiculous. A few years ago I crashed my dodge viper into a few parked cars. I’ll admit I was clearly at fault. One of the 3 cars filed a claim with my insurance company and got rewarded 3700. Three years later she is trying to sue me for MORE money claiming the car had sentimental value and this and that (Btw the car could not have been WORTH more than 3k, total hoopty). My lawyer informed me that the judge would laugh at this case seeing as how she ALREADY got paid!!! My guess is that she saw me playing poker on TV and is trying to take advantage of the situation. I’m sure she is banking on the fact that I won’t show up. Not only am I showing up but I CANNOT wait to show up and have this case dismissed and get the last laugh. Wish me luck!!!

Happy thanksgiving to everyone enjoy the time with your loved ones.

Antonio

Recently I played a hand on High Stakes Poker that, more than any other hand for me illustrates the difference between big and small stack poker. It makes a world of a difference when you have an abundant amount of chips in front of you and so does your opponent. You never want to risk your entire stack, especially in a cash game, unless you pretty much have the nuts. A very interesting hand recently came up on High Stakes Poker that I would like to discuss.

The game had a 500k buy in; yes, FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS just to sit down, no limit holdem. That’s a lot of cheese so of course so I will be playing very carefully. I had aces in the one hole and decided to limp. There was a lot of raising going on and I wanted to put in the reraise and just get it over with before the flop, but ultimately no one did raise. I hate aces in a multi-way pot especially when everyone is super deep. More big pots are lost with Aces in my opinion than any other hand. A few limpers, no raise, flop comes A 4 8, all spades. Berry Greenstein, a very good player whose game I respect tremendously, leads right out. For him to lead out into multiple players tells me he, for sure, has a hand. There is no way in the world he is bluffing. He might be betting with the king of spades, but that is highly unlikely. It was just obvious he had something. I cannot raise here because there are players behind me and I certainly wouldn’t want to get reraised and possibly have to throw my hand away, so I call. Everyone folds (which I don’t mind btw). The turn, I think, was a red queen. I haven’t seen the show yet so I am going off of memory, though the card was insignificant. He leads again. Here is where it gets interesting. He led on the flop, I called and now he is leading right out into me again. Now I am 100% sure he has a hand. He either has a flush, two pair or a smaller set. That’s it. He can’t have anything else. If he has a flush then I certainly don’t want to raise. If he has 2 pair, raising is not the best move either because he will more than likely realize that his hand is no good and muck. Remember Barry is a wizard. He would know his hand was no good here. The only thing that I would hope for would be for him to have a smaller set and even then if I do raise and he calls, if and when the board doesn’t pair, he will probably not pay off the river anyway. So with all that said I think calling was, in fact, the best option. The river brought a red king. He led again. At this point I didn’t think he had the 2 pair. If he had a 2 pair it would be any variation of the flop 2 pair…I didn’t think he had this hand because I was early position limper here I could easily have had the A Q or the A K. It was either a set or the flush and I thought the flush was way more likely than the set, although his bet on the river was more on the weak side I still saw no benefit in raising here. If I raise the river for sure 100 % he mucks. So with all those factors considered I think I played the hand correctly. If I thought there was any chance of a call on the river a value raise would have been correct and against your average player I might have done so, but against a wizard I see no value. I made the call and a crying one at that (I really did put him on the flush) and he showed me the 8 -4 for a two pair.

Maybe one day I will learn this game.

Antonio

We just finished up day 2 of shooting for episode 6 of I BET YOU. We are ALMOST half way done with season 2. Seven more episodes and we are FINITO. For this episode we went camping and bet on whom is a better camper via various bets ranging from mountain climbing to fishing to making a fire and so on. We bet on anything and everything that had to do with the outdoors.

A few of our crazier bets

 Rock climbing…one was BLINDFOLDED rock climbing. I kid you not we went up a SERIOUS cliff with zero visibility. We were roped in incase we fell but nonetheless we did shoot up without VISION! You will have to tune in to see who won.

Axe throwing…this was really fun. I always wanted to chug an axe at something and this was my way of fulfilling that desire.

Fishing…now this sounds really boring but I assure you it was just the opposite. Whoever lost had to EAT a live worm. It would be safe to say that Phil and I were MOTIVATED to catch the first fish.  It won’t take much to figure out who lost this one…and yes the loser ponied up and ATE a live worm.

I literally just got back to my room. Just finished up what may have been the MOST enjoyable shower of my life. It’s amazing we don’t appreciate technology as much as we should. Being in the woods for a couple of days I forgot how satisfying it was to turn on a sink and have water pour out…how about room service?! What a SERIOUS luxury. Oh and in your room t here is ZERO chance of getting poison oak or poison ivy (which I am REALLY hoping I didn’t get). We were rummaging through so much wilderness i’m a little nervous.

All in all I LOVE the outdoors. I love sleeping in the middle of the wilderness…looking at the stars…being at one with earth. One thing I forgot to mention-this was not the kind of camping where you drive up pick your spot and CAMP…this was park your car on the road hike about 2 miles until you FIND a place to crash. Lucky for us one of the crew guys (Spencer) was a regular in these woods and new just the perfect spot. No running water…no showers…no store to buy wood or food…just US and EARTH. It was unreal.

We have a 2 day break before filming resumes for episode 8. That gives me 2 nights to find out what Knoxville nightlife is all about!!! Watch out Tennessee here I come!

Antonio

After a week of being in Turks and Caicos it was time to return home. The great thing about flying private is you leave when you want to leave not when the airline tells you that you have to leave! Thank you Mr. Kelly for sending us home on your jet…oh wait… shall I say…NO…! On the ride home from Turks I lost 30k playing 4 handed with Jennifer Tilly, Phil Laak, and Richard Kelly. Right before we touched ground in Vegas I played a Q 2 of clubs like a total tool and gifted Jennifer 18k I think; so gross! Losing hurt, but losing to Phil’s GIRLFRIEND really stung. I never win.

Back in Vegas: I love Vegas. I really do. I miss it when I am not there. I used to think I could never live there, but now that I do I really cannot imagine living anywhere else. It felt so good to be back home. My pad is about 94% done at this point, right on the strip with a beautiful view. I’m really stoked at this point; and my roommate…what a piece of work. Walter (aka as Scooby) is a MACHINE with the ladies. I have never ever seen anyone with his powers. His job is to get girls to go to Tao! His parties are out of this world. Total side note there…just thinking of some Scooby stories I wish I could share with you all, but cannot!

Right now I am sitting in the Atlanta airport waiting for Phil to land and then we are on the same flight to Knoxville to shoot episode 6 of I BET YOU season 2. I love doing the show because it forces Phil to hang out with me. He is so big time nowadays it’s hard to get any quality time.

This week I discovered a restaurant in Vegas that is to die for. It’s on the 36^th floor of the Venetian and it is called Paiza. It’s the best Chinese in Vegas. There’s only one problem. You have to be a huge player to get into this place. My buddy, Z, was in town all week getting poker lessons and he took me and the Scoob there almost every day. I think between the 3 of us we must have had 15 orders of duck in 5 days.

Last night I went to the boxing fight in Vegas. I don’t even know the names of the guys fighting, but it sure was entertaining. It’s so sick these two guys are just put in the ring and they knock each other over and over until one of them cracks. I think one punch from these guys and my ass would be dead. Thank you, Bruce Parker, for the tickets.

I think that is all for now folks. More to come; Phil and I are going camping for I BET You. Can you imagine Phil Laak and I in the woods setting up tents, BBQ-ing, and chopping? It will be rather interesting.

Antonio

Today I played in the WPT tournament here in Turks and Caicos. I must say this place is gorgeous! It very well could be the best beach I have ever stepped foot on. I hope they keep it on the map for next year because I’m definitely coming back.

About 2 hours into the tournament I looked down at the 8 5 off suit in the big blind. The blinds were 100 200 and the 2 hole had brought it in for 400. 2 callers behind I decided to take a flop for 200 more with the old 8 high. The raiser happened to be Lou White CEO of Pokertek. By the way, Pokertek is the company that makes the fully automated poker tables. The company is doing rather well with over 130 of their tables up and running in casinos all over the world. For those of you that have never played on them you will be surprised by their easy to use system and how incredibly efficient they are. However, those tables are only about half as cool as their “heads up” challenge tables, which will be coming soon to a bar near you. For a $2 entry you can sit at the bar and play a real heads up match on an actual WSOP edition fully automated table.

Ok, talk about going off on a tangent…back to the hand. Actually I’d rather not talk about the hand at all, lol! I NEVER WIN!!! The flop comes 3 4 7 rainbow. I have a gutter for the nuts. I didn’t think anyone really connected especially the original raiser considering he had opened in the 2 hole! He could have had an over pair but I thought to myself I could definitely get him off the over pair with that flop (maybe not on the flop bet but definitely w the turn and who knows maybe even the river). I bet 1300. Lou (2 hole) calls. Others fold. The turn is a J. I like that card. By making a decent bet here I am definitely representing 2 pair or better. I bet 3400. He calls. Now I’m thinking if there was ever a time in my life that I needed a sexy little 6, this would b that time. But we all know I’m not that guy…a tenball on the river. At this point I had put him on an over pair and just knew that he would fold if I moved in and that is exactly what I did. About 10 seconds later I heard what was maybe the two grossest words in poker (when you have an 8 high especially), “I call.” He turned over the 5 6 off suit for the second nuts and that was the end of Antonio. The river bet was 17k by the way ( a rather significant bet). Although everyone told me I was a donkey (which I probably was) I still defend my play. Unless he had a straight, which I could never put him on that he was folding almost anything but a set. oh well….that’s the end of that now I get to enjoy this incredible island.

Antonio

Hey guys. I’m in Miami. I just arrived yesterday. Had a beautiful dinner at Prime 112 (one of my all-time favorite steakhouses) and then played cards ‘til the wee hours of the night at Michael’s crib, which I might add is not too shabby. It’s right on the water, and who knows how many gazillions square feet it is! My favorite moment yesterday was when Phil and I took out the jet skies and cruised around all over Miami. It was AWESOME! Now I’m getting ready to leave for Turks and Caicos.  Just wanted you all to know about a contest we are having for I Bet You.

Log on to www.mojohd.com for a chance to win an all expense paid trip for you and a guest to visit the set of “I Bet You” (Phil and I’s TV show) in Los Angeles for 4 days and 3 nights.

Support the show, and potentially win a free trip! Tell your friends!

Antonio

Another semi-hazy week…actually I was a very good boy this week. Saturday was my only real crazy night. I met up with Lonnie (owner of Les Deux and Geisha House) for dinner then off to the club for cocktails and dancing. I’ve gotta tell you Les Deux is one of my favorite spots. Saturday was the first time I was there and I was really surprised by how much I liked the layout. Half the club is indoors and the other half outdoors. We had a great table outside. The grey goose was stocked and so were the women! I could not believe how many girls were packed in this place. It was unbelievable! And QUALITY my friends! EVERY girl was attractive. Must be a Pre-requisite for entering the premises I guess.

Sunday I woke up and remembered my buddy, Bruce (we call him Dr Callaway) telling me the big boys were going to have a poker game down at the Commerce at noon. I was in the OC and had 30 minutes to get down to the Commerce otherwise I would I get shut out. I flew and made it within 30 seconds. I think the second I walked in they were about to give my seat away. It felt so good to actually play poker for a change.

Monday I had dinner plans w my buddy nick Cassavetes. He directed the Notebook, which I have to say is THE greatest love story of all time, and Alpha Dog among others. I met up with him at the Commerce Casino around 4pm. Dinner wasn’t until about 7, so why not play a little poker!?! I got a seat in Nick’s game. I play real hard against my friends, so we started battling right from the start. Around 6:30 the game was pretty good and it looked like we might even skip dinner and play cards all night until, of course, I looked down at the 10 7 of hearts. I limped 2 to the right of the button after 2 other limpers…Nick was talking to somebody and called the small blind without looking at his hand. Flop came 10 2 7 rainbow. Not a bad flop for the old 10 7. Nick bets out. I raise. He reraises. I reraise. He moves in for a pretty penny. Normally I might think about folding, I mean what is the guy putting the 4^th raise in with?!? However, since we were battling and going at each other and he had called without looking I thought he might have had the 10 2 or the 7 2. I called. 9 on the turn and maybe the sexiest 7 I have ever seen on the river. Turns out Nick actually had the pocket deuces for a set. And yours truly pulled a major suckout. So much for poker after that! It was on to Mr. Chow’s for dinner. (Mr. Chow’s is not the fast food joint you are thinking of. It’s a very high end Cali-Chinese food restaurant). It’s extremely good; a must try if you have never been. I’d have to say Nick is pretty wired. I mean as soon as we sat down Sean Penn came over to say hello. There I was sitting there with Nick Cassavetes and Sean Penn thinking to myself how in the world did I squeeze my way into this lineup???

Tuesday we resumed filming for I BET YOU. Episode 5 deals with who is the better singer. We each had a song instructor. And I must say I was impressed by both of them. Mine was Tiffany. She sang that song, “I Think We’re Alone Now.” Phil’s instructor was Frank Stallone, Sylvester Stallone’s brother. This guy was amazing with the guitar. After a 2 hour lesson we had a singing competition. We each wrote our own song. I wrote about how bigtime Phil is…lol, and by the way I will post the song on here as soon as I can find it. In the end one of us was the better singer. Tune into the MOJO HD Network to find out who it was.

Wednesday we wrapped up episode 5. Afterwards I went to meet up with a dear friend of mine Camryn Manheim at Ricki Lake’s b-day party. There were many familiar faces present but since I never watch TV I was pretty much lost in the who’s who department. I have to say Ricki was looking mighty good that night!

I had to bail on the party a little early to make a 10pm call time for the radio show, Loveline with Dr. Drew and Striker. Phil and I were to be guests on the show! I used to listen to Loveline religiously when I was a kid. I was very excited to be a guest. I thought that Phil and I did well on the show. The producers said it was one of their best episodes to date, but who knows they probably say that to all their guests! Either way we had an absolute blast. Striker was hilarious and Dr. Drew is the smart, laid back, cool doctor dude. After the show we persuaded striker to come out with us. We went to Les Deux for a drink and then called it a night.

Thursday Phil and I woke up and went down to the set of The Ghost Whisperer at Universal Studios to visit Camryn on the set. She had invited us down to check out the set and also to meet Jennifer Love Hewitt, who is supposedly a big poker lover. I was so impressed with Jennifer’s sweet energy. She is maybe one of the nicest people I have ever met. She was excited to meet us. We exchanged some poker stories and hung out for a bit between scenes. It was a lot of fun. I’ll never forget she said to me, “Hey will you autograph your book for me?” I just looked at her and smiled and said, “Shouldn’t this be the other way around?!?” Its Jennifer Love Hewitt after all!!

It’s Friday 9 am. I’m driving back to Vegas today with my cousin, Sam for the weekend. Sunday I’m off to Miami. Going to stay w Michael Kelly for a day before we all head down to Turks and Caicos on his plane. It’s going to be a blast.

Adios for now!

Filming for I BET YOU season 2 picked back up on Thursday. We shot episode 4 on Thursday and Friday in Los Angeles. Our big bet was to see who would be a better jet fighter pilot in a dogfight. We each literally flew our own plane (with an instructor, of course), and each got to hold the handle on the jet while actually flying in pursuit of the other guy’s plane and trying to shoot each other down. It was by far one the coolest things I have ever experienced. Check out www.aircombatusa.com to see what we did. We each experienced a G force of 5! It was crazy!

Last night I went to the OC to visit my cousin, Sam. My roommate, Scoob came out to LA with us, so the 3 of us went out to the Timbaland party at TENS. The place was going off pretty strong; however we left to go meet up with my friend, Manny. If you read previous blogs he is the guy that bought all the Cristal that night at Blush in Vegas. He is young, ultra successful, 100% fresh off the boat, he’s got that strong Persian accent, seriously one of my favorite people on the planet; so fun and so entertaining. He is living life to the fullest that is for sure. We met up w him at Fury (some new hotspot in the OC). As usual he was poppin’ the Cristal like it was going out of style. It’s really interesting to see how girls work. At first they are resistant to chill at the table, but the SECOND they see the champagne and the sparklers they’re like vultures. After living and partying in Vegas its rather difficult to party in a state where they take your drink away from you at 1 30AM. That’s when we get started!

So now it’s 4 pm on Saturday. I am in Manny’s penthouse condo in the OC about to take a nap and get ready for this evening’s festivities. I would love nothing more than to just go to Commerce Casino and play poker, but somehow that never seems to happen! My buddy, Lonny owns Geisha House and Les Deux (both super duper hotspots in LA) so it’s kind of hard to say no when he invites you to party with him at his clubs for the night. 

We’re shooting episode 5 of I BET YOU on Tuesday and Wednesday, then back to Vegas for the weekend, and off to Miami to hang with Michael Kelly and Phil Laak on Sunday. I’ll chill  for a couple of days before we shoot off to Turks and Caicos for the WPT. I’m looking forward to actually playing some poker for a change!

Antonio

This has been by far one of the craziest 4 weeks of my life. It all started with my 10 year high school reunion in the bay area. The next weekend was a celebrity charity tournament in San Diego where I partied with Jessica Biel, and played cards with Nelly and the owner of the hotel, Michael Kelly. The weekend after that was Labor Day weekend with all the boys in Vegas, and the weekend after that I was at the VMA’s; also in Vegas. In the last 4 weeks I have been up and about almost every single night. Where do I start!?!?!

Let’s start with my 10 year high school reunion. I wasn’t what you would call the most popular kid in school. I had been looking forward to this event for a long time. I booked a huge stretch limo and the best hotel suite in town. Let’s just say me and my boys rocked the house that night.

The following weekend I was invited to play in a celebrity charity poker tournament at the Ivy Hotel in San Diego. For those of you who are not familiar with San Diego, the Ivy is THE only hotel worth talking about. There is a very unique sense of energy and sexuality in this place. I can’t really explain it but it’s definitely there. The last thing you want to do is sit around and do nothing. You feel energized and rejuvenated staying there. The tournament was hosted by Jessica Biel, who is a very sweet and cool down to earth girl by the way. Along with her there were quite a few celebs present. Donna Baldwin organized the whole thing, and let me tell you they spared no expense. We were flown out on a private jet, got comped 3 rooms–I took my dad and some of the boys–and every single thing was comped for the entire weekend. All the booze and food you could ever want. After a serious night of gambling and partying somehow we ended up in Mexico! I would go into detail on Mexico, but that might not be such a good idea.

The next night there was a huge party on the rooftop with a private concert by Joss Stone, and Michael Kelly, being the awesome dude that he is, let me and my party have one of the only 3 tables in the place. We partied like true rock stars that night. Girls were everywhere! At 4 in the morning Michael Kelly wanted to play cards, and well, I love the guy, so when he wants to play cards I’m done doing whatever it is that I’m doing! Get the deck!!! There we were at 5 in the morning in some suite playing 4 handed; me, Phil Laak, David Wells, and Michael Kelly. My roommate and dear friend, Scooby (real name Walter), was dealing. Michael quit around 6 and we continued. It’s not often you get Phil Laak stuck! At around 7am some “blinged out” guy walked in wanting to play cards. As he sat down Scooby turns to me and goes do you know who that is? I never watch TV or know anything about music so of course I was clueless. Turns out it was Nelly, a very well know rapper. We played with Nelly for hours. All bullshit aside, I have a new found respect for rappers because I was super impressed with this guy. He is very smart, super witty and quite comical. We had a very good time playing with him. The worst part was that he was actually a pretty good poker player!! It was rather annoying actually. I’ll never forget Phil Laak turning to Nelly and going, “dude your worth like 200 million you’re supposed to come in here, lose 200k, and be on your way. Why are you playing good poker?” It was so funny! Phil kept calling Nelly Doctor Nelster. He was definitely kickin’ it like one of the boys.

Next weekend was Labor Day weekend. All of my best friends came into town and they all crashed at the pad. It was an insane weekend. Some of you may have already heard about what happened with Kobe and the Cristal so I won’t get into it too much, but it was pure insanity. You can read about it in my previous blog. The following night we went to Jet at Mirage and had a roped off section about 10 feet away from Justin Timberlake on the turntables. It was pretty sick. The entire club was shoulder to shoulder and we had all the room in the world thanks to Dave Roberts, my host at the club. Manny only bought 10 bottles of Cristal on that night…lol!! Only ten bottles comes out to about $15,000; and, of course, a plethora of females. INSANITY!!! Why stop there…I mean Sunday night Labor Day weekend is the biggest night. Eric Morrilo (very big DJ) was spinning at Tao, so we rocked the house until 6 in the morning.

Next weekend was the MTV video music awards in Las Vegas for the very first time. As if my body needed another excuse to party. My best friend, Tony was still in town from Labor Day weekend. Nelly was here for the VMAs, and having hit it off in San Diego, he invited us out to chill with him. I thought I got treated pretty well…let’s just say I am a bug on the windshield compared to the VIP treatment Nelly got.

It’s now Tuesday after VMA weekend and I am so excited to get back to normal life. I’m sure you all think I’m some crazy party animal but that really isn’t the case. Yes I go out and socialize quite a bit but it’s not often I get wasted. Usually when I am with my good friends growing up is when I really party. For the most part many times you see me out I’m dead sober. Living in Las Vegas going out all the time can catch up to someone and the last thing I want to be is that guy. I sound like such an alcoholic!!! I swear judge only on the weekends…lol.

Antonio

Antonio Esfandiari, Poker, Nelly, Justin Timberlake, Jessica Biel

Last night I had the best nightclub experience of my life. We went to the grand opening of the club Blush at the Wynn. Blush is the new and upgraded Lure. This place was gorgeous and set up rather nicely. It was their first night open so it was kind of hectic. My buddy, Larry Murphy, had us all set up with 2 of the only 4 available VIP booths in the whole club. As we sat down and ordered our bottles we noticed that Kobe Bryant was at the other table directly in front of us. He was there with a small entourage including his wife (and I gotta tell you she is SMOKIN’ hot). I’m glad he didn’t catch me looking at her the million times that I did! I’m usually quite controlled when it comes to partying, but when my old-school friends are here from out of town I tend to get a little crazy. I was in rare form last night. And so was my friend, Manny.

What I am about to tell you is 100% true. Around 1 am, after several tequila shots, Manny decides to order a bottle of Cristal champagne ($1500 for a single bottle); a waste of money if you ask me…maybe because I wouldn’t know the difference between Krug and Cristal. But hey, to each his own! Manny likes Cristal, he gets Cristal. When someone orders a bottle of Cristal in the club they bring it to you in style. About 4 or 5 waitresses come out all with flares and the theme song to Rocky plays loud. The entire club takes a glance to see what’s going on. It’s definitely an attention grabber for the girls, and there was no shortage of that my friends! A few minutes later Kobe Bryant orders 3 bottles of Cristal. The more bottles you order, the bigger the delivery. We were all pretty wasted and somehow Manny thought that Kobe was trying to outdo him. Let me tell you something about my friend Manny; he is a very successful commercial real estate developer and he won’t be shown up by anyone. That’s just his personality. So he orders 6 more bottles! I don’t know what happened next because the next thing I knew Kobe ordered somewhere around 10 bottles!!! It was the battle of the Cristal between Kobe and Manny. Manny said to me, “Antonio, get the waitress.” I said, “Manny, I know you are doing well in life, but this is madness buddy.” I knew exactly what he was going to do. He asked the waitress how many bottles of Cristal she had left. The next thing I heard, and I will never forget these words, “BRING THEM ALL!!” he said to her. She looked at him with this bewildered look, when the dust settled we had ordered 26 bottles of Cristal at $1500 a pop. About 10 minutes later the music stops, the Rocky theme song comes on, and about 13 of the hottest waitresses I’ve ever seen made an entrance and headed toward our table.

I cannot even begin to explain the energy going off at our table at this moment in time. Most of us were standing on top of the cushions, jumping out of control, and screaming at the top of our lungs. Every single one of us had a bottle to drink from, and forget about glasses. It was going to be straight out of the bottle for us. Upon delivery we started a serious spray festival. Everybody started shooting everybody with the champagne. We got drenched. It was absolute mayhem. Words can’t describe how apeshit we all went. The entire club just stopped dancing and stared at what was happening. A lot of innocent bystanders got wet too, but they really didn’t seem to mind. It was that insane. Usually security would stop you from literally spraying half the bar with your bottles, but considering we just spent $40,000 (there were 2 tabs, one just had the Cristal order) I was pretty sure they didn’t mind. Thank you, Manny, for one seriously unforgettable night!

Antonio Esfandiari and friends outduel Kobe Bryant in a battle of Cristal at Blush Nightclub at The Wynn

Kobe Bryant, Antonio Esfandiari, Blush Night Club, Poker

Phil and I are still in Miami shooting season two of our TV show I BET YOU. Today, just like most days of shooting, was quite interesting. The show works like this: there are 3 different types of bets; A, B, and C bets. The A bet is the big one where we each get trained in some art form. It could range from surfing to bartending to firefighting, but whatever the A bet is someone else teaches us something and then it is up to us to whale on each other. So every episode has one A bet, and all the B and C bets are done while preparing for the A bet.

B bets are kind of an in between the A and the C bets. A B bet would be a bet that would take a bit of time but not nearly as much time as an A bet. For example, one bet was finding random poker players on the street and pinning them against each other. We each had to find a person to play and we each spent 15 minutes teaching them. Then they would play heads up while Phil and I bet on our guys.

A C bet is quick and to the point. It’s a “can you get her phone number?”, or “I bet you can’t rub that guy’s head for 30 seconds” kind of thing.

Our director, Thom Hinkle, ex-producer of the Daily show, usually comes up with the A bets and Phil and I have no choice really. We just show up and Thom tells us if we are fighting fires, shooting sperm into a cup, dancing, runway modeling, surfing, boxing, you name it! It’s like Phil and I are his human guinea pigs.

Today our A bet involved runway modeling. We had to see who was better at walking down the runway, strutting their stuff. Thom provided us with two VERY cute models to teach us this art form. I can’t tell you the results for this bet, but I will tell you it was rather embarrassing. After the contest we took the girls down to the beach for a little fun in the sun…you never know what kind of bets can pop off on the beach. Somehow we ended up in the water and we each had our model on our shoulders and I got the brilliant idea of a catfight. There we were, each having our own model on our shoulders, betting on whose girl would take down the other guy’s girl first! It was definitely one of the highlights of my career.

More to come…tomorrow we get to go to the Miami Fire Department and get trained on being a firefighter!!

I BET YOU is on the MOJO HD Network. You can also view some clips of the show at MOJOhd.com or on youtube.com.

Today was quite an interesting day. I’m in Miami with Phil Laak filming season 2 of I Bet You. For those of you that don’t know, I Bet You is a TV show on the MOJO Network, a high def cable station. The show is basically me and Phil betting on anything and everything, from who can get a girl’s phone number to pan handling to who can get to Danny Devito’s house the fastest without using any money or any previous knowledge. It’s full of random crazy fun things like that. Season 1 was a success (from what they tell me…lol) and so MOJO requested 13 new episodes.

We shot day one of the first episode for the new season today. Phil and I come up with most of the bets you see; most of the random ones walking around anyway. Our director, Tom Hinkle, however, often comes up with some of the bits we have to do. What he had lined up for us today was something else!

The first thing we had to do was take a ride down to the sperm bank. The bet was to see who had better sperm. Believe it or not there are a lot of factors that go into evaluating how good a guy’s sperm is including the volume, how fast they swim, lifeline, and so on. The doctor came up with 5 different categories and off we went. Yes you are reading me correctly. In front of 3 cameras and a crew of 11 people Phil and I walked into the room (we each had our own room of course) and spanked our monkeys knowing that we were going to be filmed the second we came out. To find out who wins you will have to tune in to MOJO. You can also check out some bits and pieces of the show on MOJO.com or YouTube.com.

After the embarrassment of whacking off we were off to wrestle some alligators. No joke. We went to some place in Florida about 45 min outside of Miami and literally pulled 8 foot alligators out of the pond and pinned them down. The bet was to see who could do it the fastest.

So now episode 1 is complete. It might not actually be episode one when the show starts airing, but as far as filming goes we are 1 down 12 to go.