I’ve had a lot of poker stuff going on in the past week. Last Wednesday night, I played in a good 100-200nl game at Commerce. I lost 20k. I made one really terrible laydown. My mind was off…. I learned just before the game that Bank of America planned to buy a piece of Countywide. I had a massive short bet on Countrywide, so I figured to lose a huge amount on Thurs. The stock was up 25% in the aftermarket Wed.

On Thursday, I had a heads up battle against Tony G at 200-400PLO on FullTilt. I won a pretty good figure. He plays weird. He puts too much money in the pot out of position, IMO, but in fairness I cold-decked him once or twice. I played super passively and just let him string himself on. He fired two barrels as a bluff too often. Thursday night, I went out to dinner in LA with Kenny Tran, Dan Harmetz, and Kenny’s friend Casey. I always find it funny going out after a long online session (in this case, 4.5-5 hours)… basically you have to drink to avoid being totally wired. We did a decent job of that.

On Friday, I went to a charity poker tournament in San Diego that was organized by Donna Baldwin. This was an unbelievably nice event. I can’t recommend the hotel enough…..
http://www.ivyhotel.com/

The tourney structure was fast, as expected, but I had a great time chatting with Chip Reese and Howard Lederer. Phil Ivey busted early and came over to our table a bit drunk. He wanted to bet props. I took him up on it for some reason, at 10k per flop (I got 10k if it came 2/3 or 3/3 red cards, he got 10k if it came 2/3 or 3/3 black cards). I had an edge in the bet b/c I could, for example, limp with a black J-9 or go all-in with a red 2-7 (which makes for an interesting maximization problem, by the way, as you’re playing for nothing but you risk losing the prop bet option). All I can tell you is that this was the day for black. Black black black black, Brando is down 104k. If you want a “What am I doing with my life?” moment, lose 104k in props.

I guess Phil Ivey might be the world’s premier gambler at the moment. And, for the record, I do believe that whoever you’re talking about, you have to add the “add the moment” part. This is a high volatility business with some sickness thrown in. So here’s my evidence for Phil being on top now…. Kenny Tran and I see Phil at the bar (after props) and tell him that a game might go down in one of the rooms. Phil says, “I don’t have any money”. Kenny says, “Surely your credit is good around here”. This conversation continues for a bit, then Phil says, “Wait a minute, I do have money.” He had truly forgotten that he had money, but then, five minutes later, he showed up with a Ziplock bag that had $700k+ in it (mostly cranberries) and said, “You never know when things are going to go down.”

I went to bed at 2 or so on Saturday night (I had the tournament on Sunday). A game spontaneously started in one of the rooms at about 3.30am and by all reports it was a very good one. I walked in at 10am and it was down to 3 people…. Antonio Estfandiari, Phil Laak, and Nelly. As I write this, it seems crazier than it did at the time…. I mean, it was Phil, Antonio, and Nelly. Nelly is far smoother than any poker player could ever hope to be, and he’s somehow a master with chips.

I busted the Bike tournament in the second to last level. I was short-stacked and lost a 20,000 chip pot with KK.