Weekend at Daniels (Part 2)

I am walking through Caesars Palace with Daniel Negreanu a few paces in front of the rest of the group. We speed past throngs of the “beautiful people” awaiting their entry into the nightclub, Pure. The place is packed and we are making good time, snaking through the crowd. Daniel is walking quite fast so I do a little jog to catch up.

“How often do people do a double take after they see you?” I ask curiously.

“I actually don’t even notice anymore” he replies. “I just look down at the ground when I walk, and go as fast as I can. People don’t seem to notice me as much when I am outside of the element they usually see me.”

I understand what he is saying, but we are in his element, in the casino, pushing past drunken gamblers and starry-eyed tourists. We have just come from the Caesars poker room, where Daniel has just broken up what was surely to be a messy situation. Some drunken poker enthusiast got out of line in the room, and Daniel did his best to play peacekeeper, helping huge security guys escort the guy to the door. Daniel is as nice and congenial, and as genuine as you see on TV, I think to myself as we leave.

“Hey, you don’t mind me calling you a cartoon photographer, right? You know I am just joking around.” He says as he puts his arm around me squeezing my neck the way that a brother would.

“I don’t mind at all” I say truthfully, then add “Do you think it is blog-worthy?” Wondering if I would make it into the on-line journal Daniel keeps, that I read all the time. Kind of a bold move by me, but I have had a few drinks at this point.

“Ya! I will write a note! This is how I write my blog” he says as he retrieves his ever ready blackberry device from his pocket and shows me the various points written on it. He writes “Cartoon Photographer” as we reach the entrance of the casino.

We head out the revolving door into the heat of the Las Vegas night.


Once the hand with Daniel is over I have a good chip stack so I make a decision to only play premium cards and wait out some of the eliminations. That doesn’t last very long when I pick up 86 in the big blind and check my option only to see two eights come on the flop. I check and raise Carlo, who makes a late position bet. He calls and the turn is a blank. I go all in and he goes into the tank.

“You playing A8?” he says with a half smile

“Oh Crap! He has an 8 as well”, I think to myself as I try not to give anything away.

He thinks for a few minutes longer and finally makes the call. He flips up 87 and his kicker is currently in play. The dealer peels of the river and it doesn’t register with me for a few seconds that it is a 6. I hit a three outer. Live poker is so rigged.

Good call Carlo; sorry again about the bad beat.

After that I start to pick up some good cards and win some pretty good pots. In one hand, I pick up AK suited and take out another player who is playing AJ and my stack grows even more. I think even Daniel is eying my stack at this point.

I make it to the final table as the chip leader sitting in the 10 seat right across the table from Daniel who is in the 7 seat. I don’t get involved in any more hands with Daniel as the table turns into an all-in fest.

I look around and take it all in as I am sitting there. In addition to the 10 people from our party standing around the table there are about 15 people standing behind the rail watching the action. Well, really they are watching Daniel but it still feels pretty cool.

“It looks like it is going to be you and I head’s up” Daniel says to me. TO ME!

I say something like “I am going to have to take you down”, but who really knows. I am just going over in my head how the hell I got here.

It doesn’t end up happening. Daniel picks up some 2nd best hands and loses most of his stack finally going out when his weaker ace fails to suck out. He is out in 5th.

We get down to three, and I choose this point to start playing poker like a total donkey, trying to bully the two girls who are left. They are having none of it and start picking up some really nice hands and calling me. Victoria ends up going out in 3rd before Jenn makes short work of me heads up. She consistently gets all-in with better hands than mine, even when I have an ace, she turns over AK. It was sick. I had victory in my grasp and let it slip away, all while Daniel Negreanu is sitting across the table watching me.

Everyone congratulates Jenn, and deservedly so. She played awesome for someone who doesn’t sit at the table very much.

With the tournament over, and the occasional outburst of Shawn Sheikhan behind us, we pile into a limo and head to the ESPN Sports Zone to watch the Oilers/Hurricanes Stanley Cup playoff game.

We are led to our private room with several tables and TV’s and order drinks and food and watch what turns out to be a great hockey game. Despite a questionable call from the ref, the Oilers go on to win the game and give themselves a shot at coming back in the best of 7 series.

After several beers, a trivia challenge, a trip to the arcade, and one hilarious carrot cake eating session (where Ed became $500 richer) we left the ESPN zone with more great memories to take with us. In addition to some great pictures.

Day 2 Coming Later