After taking photos of my roommate with the Royal Flush Girls with the WPT trophy and championship belt in the background, we head back to the VIP Lounge. Phil "The Unabomber" Laak is in the house! Rather than verbally harass him, we chat with down-to-earth Phil. My roommate asks him if he is sponsored to do multiple re-entries and Phil actually answers him.
Tony "bond18" Dunst is the next celebrity I recognize in the Lounge. westside8 had introduced us during the 2+2 Party at the Hard Rock Casino in the year all three of us were playing the WSOP Main Event. One of the qualifiers was chatting with him and I was waiting to introduce my roommate, but I didn't notice him leaving early to do the "Shuffle up and deal" opening with the RFG. I would get to congratulate him later for just winning the WPT Caribbean for $145,000.
While Day 1A is underway, the fourth beautiful model arrives in the Lounge. The official WPT photographer (Will?) took photos of the two models they hired specifically for WPT Montreal. I knew that it was my moral and ethical obligation to the forum to take a pic >:D so here it is.
They both wore orange high heeled shoes to match PartyPoker's new colours, just like the orange-coloured couches you see in the background. They looked great in high heels but were uncomfortable, and they couldn't wait to take them off at the Lounge at the end of each working day. Here is another photo taken by a friend on a different day; his red-eye adjustment did not seem to be working, but at least you can see the orange shoes.
During the first break after two hours of play, I see Kara Scott and ask my roommate if he wants photos with her. I introduce my roommate and Kara remembers him from WPT Vienna where he had also won a package :cool: but didn't say a peep during the entire trip. After we take photos by the stage where the feature table is, Kara soon returns to her table. She is in a tough table and gets busted on Day 1A, but re-enters (repaying the full rake) on Day 1B.
While sitting at the VIP Lounge, somebody walked close to my face and first I thought I was in trouble, but it turned out to be a smiling business owner associated with PartyPoker whom I have known for years. He introduced me to Chris Tessaro who created and hosted 'The Poker Show with Chris Tessaro' on Sportsnet Radio. I remember him most from his famous prop bets with Kara Scott, such as her having to wear a bunny suit on TV!
Unfortunately, the RFG were not included in the all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet.
I notice the #1 executive in charge of North America for PartyPoker walk in, whom I have chatted several times with since the CPT (Canadian Poker Tour) Championships in the Dominican Republic. I'm a Facebook friend of bwin.party's Head of Consumer Public Relations, so I was hoping to meet him in person. I was also hoping to meet the new Head of Poker, Jeffrey Haas, who was headhunted from PokerStars
and is at least trying to fix the many blunders of bwin.party, such as finally getting rid of player segregation. "cheers: Unfortunately, it seems that the bwin.party executives are working overtime with the return of PartyPoker to the US; they were busy with meetings and flew to New Jersey after the WPT Party, so for the first time, I didn't get to chat with any PartyPoker managers.
For the 45-minute dinner break, Playground provided another buffet. I line up and get the unexpected pleasure of being sandwiched by my poker idols - timex in front of me, SirWatts and bond18 behind me!
I shake hands with my three idols, including congratulating Tony Dunst on his WPT championship. There are a LOT of other pros, but the few I recognize include Vanessa Selbst and Jonathan Duhamel. Mike "BankofTimex" McDonald is closest to me so I chat with him the rest of the way in the long food line-up. He tells me that his current stack is exactly 30,000. I replied, "Wat??" He explains that he has just arrived from Waterloo and is late registering as usual after Level 6. I kid with him that his name is Timex but he can't make it on time for tournaments. I told him that his late registration means that he will cash again; I was right as he later finished in 27th place.
I go back to The Lounge and have a glass of champagne. There are two masseuse there; a massage costs $1/minute at Playground but it's free at The Lounge. Some of the qualifiers forget to pull up their pants so their butts are showing while getting their back massage in the reversed chair, and I tell my roommate that I am starting to lose my appetite. It's my roommate's turn to get a massage, but he also forgets not to showcase his butt; I finally have to get up and tell him to pull up his pants before I throw up!
I'm offered a stake to play the $291+$39 super satellite at 8 PM with ten seats guaranteed, but I'm very comfortable for such satellite buy-ins so I buy in on my own. I notice Liv Boeree playing too; I remember her saying that even though she is sponsored to play some tournaments, she still likes to play satellites.
What I keep hearing lately from villains is,
"How the f*ck could you call that??"
In the first blind level with 20,000 starting chips, villain bluff check-raises me with QQ on a JT6A turn, then bluffs me all-in on the brick river. After I tank and make the call, villain is unable to understand why I didn't fold trip Jacks to his bluffs. Unfortunately, Playground uses the bad re-entry format - which Matt Savage has finally agreed with me that re-entries are a bad idea - so when villain busts, he gets up and walks to the cashier, repays the full rake to the casino, then is given 20,000 chips again to go to a random table. I had found out earlier that there was a limit of 150 players, but Playground allowed alternates along with unlimited re-entries. Anyway, this is way too much poker for pokerJAH, so before he tells me to GTFO, it's time for a pic of Liv.
Another question that I kept getting asked by some players during WPT Montreal is:
"Where the f*ck have you been all these years??"
After making money in WPT Fallsview, CPT, GBH, Brantford, Point Edward, etc., I had said good-bye to SteveKerr, crazykoby, etc. as I went to the Dark Side of online poker in 2009. There were a lot of people that I haven't seen for years but saw them at WPT Montreal, including from the bar leagues that I learnt poker from.
Liv seems to have been eliminated from her table. When I get moved to my third table, I recognize three of the players as from the GTA who had played at WPT Fallsview. There were a couple of other GTAers in the table, so as has been the case all week, Rob Ford Nation took over Playground and there were a lot of jokes being CRACKed around!
In an earlier game where I overheard three players talking about Toronto, my Spidey senses were telling me in a hand that my KK was probably up against AA. After Toronto villain over-raised all-in on the low flop, I started talking to him about Toronto to try to confirm that he had AA and wanted a call. After doing my usual SHAL, I decided to "go with my read" - without "throwing out the math" as I explained to my roommate later that math ALWAYS matters in poker - and shouted, "You're all crackheads from Toronto!" while looking at relaxed villain then I folded KK. The friendly dealer said, "Sir, please don't call other players crackheads." I replied, "I said it only because I'm one of them crackheads from Toronto." The whole table was laughing. Villain asked if I had folded an overpair of QQ; he later busted, but I did not want to ask at that point what he had. Ooops, I just made another sacrilegious paragraph about poker, so I'll make it up to pokerJAH with the NSFW final pic of the day:
Believe it or not, all of the poker celebrities we interacted with in my first three posts are just from one day (November 29). Day 1B next....
so did you play any poker in Montreal? Just wondering...
Sigh. SteveKerr and I drove over 1,000 km to Playground Poker Club to play ... I forget what our purpose was.
Steve and I played one of the tournaments a couple of tables away from each other and chatted during our breaks.
Great trip report - could have moar Michael Boyle tho - although I admit I was running off my feet the entire series so I didn't get as much time to chat as I would have liked.
BTW Matt Savage is still pro next-day-reentry like we do, he's very clear about that. He's against same-day/same-flight re-entry. Which we don't do.
After heaven and earth are moved in order to get the all-new player merchandise past the Quebec bureaucracy before they close for the weekend, the big boxes finally arrive on Friday night. My roommate receives his player bag and drives back to the hotel. For the third night in a row, I'm still playing at Playground after he's all done, so I was expecting to take a taxi again for $35.
The Day 1A players had already bagged their chips for the night when my game ended after midnight. I was about to go outside to find a taxi when I saw a female WPT Productions manager sitting by the door. I had met her earlier in the day and it seems that all the female employees of WPT/PartyPoker are attractive. Anyway, she informs me that there is a Playground shuttle outside waiting to bring anybody back to Holiday Inn. She later commandeers that last shuttle to go to Westin Hotel too so I went from being alone in the shuttle to every seat taken by the WPT Productions team.
Day 1B, November 30 - The Hunt for Autographs
As requested by pokerJAH, Day 1B is virtually poker-free and you'll notice a pattern in the photos!
One of the UK qualifiers wanted to get his "$3,850 worth of drinks" and eventually had to be cut off on Day 1A and escorted to a taxi. When he got back to our hotel, he proceeded to keep drinking! I phoned him in the morning but we were unable to go up to his penthouse room, so he first comes down to our floor with his special access card. Just like the Sheraton Centre in Toronto where a poker site gave my family the VIP treatment, Holiday Inn has upgraded rooms in its "Executive Club Level" top floors. The 19th floor has a business centre, and I liked his executive room. Unfortunately for him, he is still hung over and will not survive Day 1B.
When the three of us arrive at Playground, I say "Magandang umaga" to Ivy and "Good morning" to Angelique, Jen, Kathryn et al. My roommate and I are again escorted past the huge "X-Men Sentinels" guarding the tournament area. I liked the champagne from last night's dinner so I order it again for breakfast.
A smart qualifier asked the event hosts if he can get the list of players in his table. I knew it was a great idea and I would do the same thing, but like almost all non-pros I know, my roommate is more of a "feel" player and "just wants to play" so we simply go to his table.
As I was wishing the many players I knew good luck, I saw Xuan Liu - who I haven't seen since the $10K WPT Fallsview - walk into the tournament area and chatted with her. Unfortunately for my roommate, she goes to his table. While he wasn't interested in getting a table list, I inform him that one of the best female players in the world (#13 in GPI) had just sat down in his table. Another PartyPoker qualifier had noticed I was chatting with her so he wanted an introduction. So just like I introduced ReefAquarium years ago to Xuan when she was grinding at Fallsview winning against players such as Sylvain Siebert (4th place in this year's WPT Montreal & 5th place last year for total winnings of over $300K! :cool2:), I brought the two qualifiers over to Xuan and she was gracious as always.
I was talking to a couple of players in another table when a friendly Playground manager stops by the table and announces that it wins as having the most number of players (six) just beffore the tourney starts. My Spidey senses goes tingling that it could be mikelbyl and I was right. He continues running off his feet as he does the entire series.
When the tourney starts, I head back to The Lounge. The female guest of a qualifier playing in Day 1B keeps admiring the poker celebrities but is too petrified to say hi or ask for an autograph. Just like I would do for any forumer, I ask her if she wants me to get her cap autographed. Everybody knows that every poker event is a sausage fest, with very few females so it's almost like finding a needle in a haystack. During the first break, I play this "Where's Waldo?" game and manage to get half a dozen autographs of the female celebrities, including Xuan, Maria Ho, Isabell Mercier, and Kara Scott.
These 2 photos are from another event.
Somebody who I haven't seen since WPT Fallsview asked how much they charged me for the autographs. Instead of "Wat??", I replied, "About tree fiddy."
While I'm using my laptop at The Lounge, she shouts, "OMG, OMG, I see SirWatts! Can you please go & get his autograph?" I lock my screen and go to who she pointed to and ask for an autograph, but it turns out not to be SirWatts! Later, she shouts, "OMG, OMG, I see Phil Ivey. Can you please get his autograph?" I think to myself, "WTF would Phil Ivey be doing in a $3850 event??" but I go play her "Where's Waldo?" game again. The darkest players I could see are Victor Ramdin and Faraz "The Toilet" Jaka, and she realizes that she meant Phil Laak, not Ivey. :rolleyes:
When dinner break started, I went to my roommate but we could not talk strategy as he had lined up for the buffet with the same players from his table. I had my usual champagne and he had his usual massage after dinner.
RFG Angelique & Ivy on the way from the hotel to the WPT Party
I was invited to the WPT Party at The Rail Coal Fire Bistro so I go there at 9 PM.
My poker drink of choice are energy drinks so I first ordered a Red Bull to give me wings. The can clearly states "NOT to be mixed with alcohol" but I ignored the warning as my table kept ordering vodka shots after shots after shots...
Marvin Rettenmaier (first-ever back-to-back WPT Champion & #3 in GPI); RFG Angelique and Ivy; and our never-ending peach vodka shots!
Ivy has a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, so I know who to hide behind if there's trouble! The hockey game then UFC were on the big screens, so we watched the Leafs lose to the Canadiens. The autograph seeker asked if I recognize any more celebrities so I play "Where's Waldo?" again in the dark bar and see Matt Salzberg, Weeds producer and WPT Player of the Year. Matt was skeptical that I wanted his autograph for somebody else so I bring him over to the lady and he graciously signs the cap. I eventually fill up her cap with over 20 autographs, including Phil Laak (no Ivey), the real SirWatts, Antonio Esfandiari, Vanessa Selbst, Victor Ramdin, Eugene Katchelov, Sorel Mizzi, timex, and bond18.
Lily Kiletto, Ivy, Matt Salzberg, Will "The Thrill" Failla.
My roommate survives being on the table with Xuan Liu and a couple of One Drop players ($1 million buy-in) in his table and moves on to Day 2. There was no room for dancing in the restaurant/bar, but just when my roommate and I were leaving to his car, somebody asked me to dance.
where is the picture of Blondefish doing the Angelique and Ivy sandwich? Played 5/10 w Mark S. at PCA last year. Never seen someone so unhappy at the poker table.
Glad you popped your Playground cherry and our TRs a year apart are very similar, betting we'd get along well IRL. Really regret not going, scetchy time to asking for extra holidays at work though.
On a poker note it was crazy that one guy made back to back final tables, they guy that won last year bubbled TV in 7th and the guy that came 7th last year made this years final table...
I would think a rfg is the last thing I'd want to eat in the morning but I defer to your much more vast experience with fun things. are extreme ss really that tasty?
I would think a rfg is the last thing I'd want to eat in the morning but I defer to your much more vast experience with fun things. are extreme ss really that tasty?
Of course, if I can get along well with mikelbyl, Phil (The Great Sabu?), Dave; your co-workers Spider & Peter; and loose cannons who admit that they "tilt everybody in the table and everybody hates me," then I can get along with anybody. While T8yourmoney, trigs, actyper and even the new Head of Poker, Jeffrey Haas, know that your positive posts here about bwin.party were out-of-date and incorrect, we have a lot more in common than disagreement.
Day 1C was a free day and I was ready to go to anywhere such as gentlemen's clubs, the new Planetarium, Schwartz Deli,
other poker rooms, etc., but unfortunately, my roommate wanted to drive first to Playground then stayed there for the entire day.
While Mike Sexton was playing in Day 1C and already in the tournament area, Vincent Van Patten was hanging around The Lounge. As usual, I asked my roommate if he wanted a photo, then introduced him.
The ladies in The Lounge were talking about the famous urinals in one of the Playground washrooms, but were too chicken to sneak a peek, so I take the following photo:
They all laugh. I ask Vince if he wants me to show him which washroom has them, but he'd rather watch the football game. I ask him which game and which of the many TV screens at Playground he wants to watch it on. Don't tell mikelbyl, but I "hack" one of the TV screens so that Vince can watch his game on it. He later leaves when he hears his name being called for the 5/10 cash game list.
One of the older qualifiers from the GTA had arrived the previous night without a hotel reservation while all the major hotels were booked. I asked him where he ended up staying, and I was surprised when he said that he stayed with his polar opposite of the young kid from the UK in the penthouse suite with only one bed. I later asked the kid where the old guy slept, and he said that they slept in the same bed. "It's OK, we only cuddled!" He then asked my roommate and I, "Don't you two sleep together?" :rolleyes:
A lot of the Playground managers and supervisors kept going back and forth to The Lounge during the week. At one point, I think it was the promotions manager who brought two of my GTA friends back there. We greeted each other, "WTF are YOU doing here?!" The manager introduced my two friends to the PartyPoker Event Host as Playground VIPs. I asked my friends, "How the &^%$#@! did you two become VIPs already?" They replied that one of them had won over $200,000 in a previous WPT Main Event at Playground, and the other has cashed several times at Playground along with winning a WSOP-C championship gold ring last week.
My two VIP friends wanted the coveted PartyPoker player bag with hoodie, cap and T-shirt to wear during the Main Event. I don't think they were ever given the swag so they were two unhappy VIPs. When there an iPad Air being given out on Day 1C for one randomly chosen player wearing anything PartyPoker, I even had to lend one of them my own "partypoker.net" patch. He never did return my patch, but I'm willing to trade for his WSOP gold ring!
While actyper and I were given as many PartyPoker clothes when we won a WSOP ME package, the two contractors in this event were much more selective on who gets anything. Everybody from players, waitresses and even the shuttle driver were requesting a PartyPoker hoodie, but even I wasn't given one until my final night. Here is my photo of the highly coveted PartyPoker hoodie.
Of the lucky few that got the hoodie, many mentioned that the Canadian flag on the hoodie should be white. I'm a very patriotic Canadian, but IMHO, if the hoodie design is supposed to be artsy with the artist's interpretation of the Canadian map and flag, then using PartyPoker's new colour theme is not too bad instead of a perfect reproduction of the Canadian flag. What do you think of the Canadian flag in the new PartyPoker swag?
Day 1C was similar to previous days: same brunch buffet menu, champagne for brunch and dinner, free drinks between 10:30 AM -12:30 PM and 7-9 PM; using my laptop at The Lounge with free wifi; massage after the dinner buffet.
I had noticed Playboy model Trishelle Cannatella when we were playing the same tournaments earlier in the week, but I think she waited until Day 1C to play the ME. Below is one of her non-nude photos.
OK, take a break and "Google is your friend" for her other photos....
I expect you will be sporting the new hoodie at Woodbine over the coming months. I was planning on doing a trip report for my upcoming PCA trip but its hard to compete with this pussy galore TP.
I expect you will be sporting the new hoodie at Woodbine over the coming months. I was planning on doing a trip report for my upcoming PCA trip but its hard to compete with this pussy galore TP.
I wore the hoodie at the Brantford Deep Stack and won first place money (heads-up deal). I wore the same lucky hoodie jacket (different shirt) the next day at Casino Rama, and got my second "Congratulations on your WIN!" photo holding the big novelty cheque. I will have to remember to wear the same lucky hoodie at the Brantford Deep Stack this month that several forumers have a BAP of me.
I might as well finish off this WPT Montreal TR before I get too busy with the WPT Fallsview satellites.
Final Day 2: F1 Racing with Kara & other Party Girls
My roommate made it to Day 2, so I suggested to him to do all the things that I did during four days of playing the WSOP Main Event. I got up early and looked at the info from WorldPokerTour.com, Playground, Canada Poker, jontm and mikelbyl. But we both get distracted by Lily Kiletto's "coverage" online.
When we drive to Playground and go to the tournament area, the usual "X-Men Sentinels" were guarding the entrance so we waited for the event hosts to waive us in. My roommate was hoping for a different breakfast menu, but it was the same food four days in a row. Meh, just give me my same-as-always glass of champagne and I'm - "Hic!" - happy.
I go get the list of Day 2 players, tables and prize payouts; I give my roommate a small printout of the players in his table. Strangely, Playground changed my roommate's name into "Stephane." When my roommate showed the young UK qualifier his table list, the kid says, "Ooooh, where is this Stephanie? Is she really hot?" My roommate wanted to knock him out all the way back to the UK!
After the Day 2 start, the Royal Flush Girls, Kara Scott and PartyPoker guests were off to Vortex Racing, the first professional simulation racing centre in North America. On my way out to the shuttle, I saw RFG Angelique sitting down and reminded her, "Aren't you going? We're leaving now."
I also saw SirWatts in the hallway and recognized the depressed body language of having just busted out of a tournament. He asked me if the shuttle is going back to downtown Montreal and I tell him no. I give him the tip of how to get a flat rate from a taxi. The initial taxi refused to take him at first, but he eventually got in. I later learned that he had won a high roller tournament online that weekend so he did better than most of the other players in Day 2.
We arrived at Vortex Racing. We all took off our shoes to put on red racing shoes. I saw Kara Scott being dropped off later so I opened the door for her. Kara, Ivy & Angelique put on the sexy red racing suits and helmets for some WPT Productions filming. All three were very professional in the filming takes. It seems like the whole WPT crew is one big happy family.
We were separated into two groups and the best six scores would go to the finals. Having taught pokerJAH and pkrfce9 Credit Card Roulette, I continued with the degeneracy by proposing a prop bet for the Vortex Racing. Chris Tessaro ended up collecting the money from everybody but Kara, who was afraid that she can never win any bet with Chris.
I was in the same group as Kara, Ivy and Angelique. The new PartyPoker logo was programmed in, just like the many ads you see around a real Formula One racetrack. I spent most of the trial run smashing into the Royal Flush Girls, >:D and Kara won the race. She joined our winner-take-all prop bet. I finally figured out that I should not drive a Formula One race car like my horse-and-buggy from the previous millennium :-[ and in the qualifying race, I beat everybody except the car driven by "Angelique." When I came out to congratulate her, she had been sitting all comfy in the chair eating all that time! It seems that she got a little hurt during the trial run and somebody else drove in her place.
I made it to the finals of the best six scores. A qualifier who used to be a race car driver blew us all away. He was awarded a big bottle of champagne along with the cash bet.
A couple of other ladies from WPT Productions joined in the racing fun. All the ladies I saw during the week employed by WPT/PartyPoker were attractive. After taking a few more photos of the Party girls for pokerJAH's eyes only, I said goodbye to Kara as she was flying back to her new home of Italy. vortex - YouTube
While driving back in very slow traffic to Playground, the native driver gave us all his version of Kahnawake politics including the Oka Crisis. It seems that there is still a lot of resentment with the Montreal residents, the Quebec and federal governments.
Back at WPT Montreal, almost all of the qualifiers had busted during Day 2. One of them talked to a Playground manager and he was given some free swag to wear back in TO. It looks like I talked to the wrong manager and should have talked to Phil instead! I have my PartyPoker WPT hoodies and other clothing which people like, but I have nothing to wear from Playground in the many poker games I go to.
On our drive back to Toronto the following morning, my roommate and I stopped by OLG Casino Thousand Islands. It had four tables and surprisingly had a tournament going on. They were dealer-dealt instead of electronic. The max rake is only $5 so now I know where to play cash games to and from Playground tournaments. Below is the photo I took.
The drive home took a total of seven hours again, so maybe next time I will have to drive a F1 race car to Playground instead! Hopefully, the Party girls will be back at WPT Fallsview, where pokerJAH and other forumers can "have their cake and eat it too!"
Comments
Tony "bond18" Dunst is the next celebrity I recognize in the Lounge. westside8 had introduced us during the 2+2 Party at the Hard Rock Casino in the year all three of us were playing the WSOP Main Event. One of the qualifiers was chatting with him and I was waiting to introduce my roommate, but I didn't notice him leaving early to do the "Shuffle up and deal" opening with the RFG. I would get to congratulate him later for just winning the WPT Caribbean for $145,000.
While Day 1A is underway, the fourth beautiful model arrives in the Lounge. The official WPT photographer (Will?) took photos of the two models they hired specifically for WPT Montreal. I knew that it was my moral and ethical obligation to the forum to take a pic >:D so here it is.
They both wore orange high heeled shoes to match PartyPoker's new colours, just like the orange-coloured couches you see in the background. They looked great in high heels but were uncomfortable, and they couldn't wait to take them off at the Lounge at the end of each working day. Here is another photo taken by a friend on a different day; his red-eye adjustment did not seem to be working, but at least you can see the orange shoes.
During the first break after two hours of play, I see Kara Scott and ask my roommate if he wants photos with her. I introduce my roommate and Kara remembers him from WPT Vienna where he had also won a package :cool: but didn't say a peep during the entire trip. After we take photos by the stage where the feature table is, Kara soon returns to her table. She is in a tough table and gets busted on Day 1A, but re-enters (repaying the full rake) on Day 1B.
To be continued with more photos and almost no poker! :-\
Unfortunately, the RFG were not included in the all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet.
I notice the #1 executive in charge of North America for PartyPoker walk in, whom I have chatted several times with since the CPT (Canadian Poker Tour) Championships in the Dominican Republic. I'm a Facebook friend of bwin.party's Head of Consumer Public Relations, so I was hoping to meet him in person. I was also hoping to meet the new Head of Poker, Jeffrey Haas, who was headhunted from PokerStars
and is at least trying to fix the many blunders of bwin.party, such as finally getting rid of player segregation. "cheers: Unfortunately, it seems that the bwin.party executives are working overtime with the return of PartyPoker to the US; they were busy with meetings and flew to New Jersey after the WPT Party, so for the first time, I didn't get to chat with any PartyPoker managers.
For the 45-minute dinner break, Playground provided another buffet. I line up and get the unexpected pleasure of being sandwiched by my poker idols - timex in front of me, SirWatts and bond18 behind me!
I shake hands with my three idols, including congratulating Tony Dunst on his WPT championship. There are a LOT of other pros, but the few I recognize include Vanessa Selbst and Jonathan Duhamel. Mike "BankofTimex" McDonald is closest to me so I chat with him the rest of the way in the long food line-up. He tells me that his current stack is exactly 30,000. I replied, "Wat??" He explains that he has just arrived from Waterloo and is late registering as usual after Level 6. I kid with him that his name is Timex but he can't make it on time for tournaments. I told him that his late registration means that he will cash again; I was right as he later finished in 27th place.
I go back to The Lounge and have a glass of champagne. There are two masseuse there; a massage costs $1/minute at Playground but it's free at The Lounge. Some of the qualifiers forget to pull up their pants so their butts are showing while getting their back massage in the reversed chair, and I tell my roommate that I am starting to lose my appetite. It's my roommate's turn to get a massage, but he also forgets not to showcase his butt; I finally have to get up and tell him to pull up his pants before I throw up!
I'm offered a stake to play the $291+$39 super satellite at 8 PM with ten seats guaranteed, but I'm very comfortable for such satellite buy-ins so I buy in on my own. I notice Liv Boeree playing too; I remember her saying that even though she is sponsored to play some tournaments, she still likes to play satellites.
What I keep hearing lately from villains is,
"How the f*ck could you call that??"
In the first blind level with 20,000 starting chips, villain bluff check-raises me with QQ on a JT6A turn, then bluffs me all-in on the brick river. After I tank and make the call, villain is unable to understand why I didn't fold trip Jacks to his bluffs. Unfortunately, Playground uses the bad re-entry format - which Matt Savage has finally agreed with me that re-entries are a bad idea - so when villain busts, he gets up and walks to the cashier, repays the full rake to the casino, then is given 20,000 chips again to go to a random table. I had found out earlier that there was a limit of 150 players, but Playground allowed alternates along with unlimited re-entries. Anyway, this is way too much poker for pokerJAH, so before he tells me to GTFO, it's time for a pic of Liv.
Another question that I kept getting asked by some players during WPT Montreal is:
"Where the f*ck have you been all these years??"
After making money in WPT Fallsview, CPT, GBH, Brantford, Point Edward, etc., I had said good-bye to SteveKerr, crazykoby, etc. as I went to the Dark Side of online poker in 2009. There were a lot of people that I haven't seen for years but saw them at WPT Montreal, including from the bar leagues that I learnt poker from.
Liv seems to have been eliminated from her table. When I get moved to my third table, I recognize three of the players as from the GTA who had played at WPT Fallsview. There were a couple of other GTAers in the table, so as has been the case all week, Rob Ford Nation took over Playground and there were a lot of jokes being CRACKed around!
In an earlier game where I overheard three players talking about Toronto, my Spidey senses were telling me in a hand that my KK was probably up against AA. After Toronto villain over-raised all-in on the low flop, I started talking to him about Toronto to try to confirm that he had AA and wanted a call. After doing my usual SHAL, I decided to "go with my read" - without "throwing out the math" as I explained to my roommate later that math ALWAYS matters in poker - and shouted, "You're all crackheads from Toronto!" while looking at relaxed villain then I folded KK. The friendly dealer said, "Sir, please don't call other players crackheads." I replied, "I said it only because I'm one of them crackheads from Toronto." The whole table was laughing. Villain asked if I had folded an overpair of QQ; he later busted, but I did not want to ask at that point what he had. Ooops, I just made another sacrilegious paragraph about poker, so I'll make it up to pokerJAH with the NSFW final pic of the day:
Believe it or not, all of the poker celebrities we interacted with in my first three posts are just from one day (November 29). Day 1B next....
Steve and I played one of the tournaments a couple of tables away from each other and chatted during our breaks. I already emailed a poker trip report to my BAP investors, but it's obvious that pokerJAH and others prefer photos over poker in this forum.
BTW Matt Savage is still pro next-day-reentry like we do, he's very clear about that. He's against same-day/same-flight re-entry. Which we don't do.
After heaven and earth are moved in order to get the all-new player merchandise past the Quebec bureaucracy before they close for the weekend, the big boxes finally arrive on Friday night. My roommate receives his player bag and drives back to the hotel. For the third night in a row, I'm still playing at Playground after he's all done, so I was expecting to take a taxi again for $35.
The Day 1A players had already bagged their chips for the night when my game ended after midnight. I was about to go outside to find a taxi when I saw a female WPT Productions manager sitting by the door. I had met her earlier in the day and it seems that all the female employees of WPT/PartyPoker are attractive. Anyway, she informs me that there is a Playground shuttle outside waiting to bring anybody back to Holiday Inn. She later commandeers that last shuttle to go to Westin Hotel too so I went from being alone in the shuttle to every seat taken by the WPT Productions team.
Day 1B, November 30 - The Hunt for Autographs
As requested by pokerJAH, Day 1B is virtually poker-free and you'll notice a pattern in the photos!
One of the UK qualifiers wanted to get his "$3,850 worth of drinks" and eventually had to be cut off on Day 1A and escorted to a taxi. When he got back to our hotel, he proceeded to keep drinking! I phoned him in the morning but we were unable to go up to his penthouse room, so he first comes down to our floor with his special access card. Just like the Sheraton Centre in Toronto where a poker site gave my family the VIP treatment, Holiday Inn has upgraded rooms in its "Executive Club Level" top floors. The 19th floor has a business centre, and I liked his executive room. Unfortunately for him, he is still hung over and will not survive Day 1B.
When the three of us arrive at Playground, I say "Magandang umaga" to Ivy and "Good morning" to Angelique, Jen, Kathryn et al. My roommate and I are again escorted past the huge "X-Men Sentinels" guarding the tournament area. I liked the champagne from last night's dinner so I order it again for breakfast.
A smart qualifier asked the event hosts if he can get the list of players in his table. I knew it was a great idea and I would do the same thing, but like almost all non-pros I know, my roommate is more of a "feel" player and "just wants to play" so we simply go to his table.
As I was wishing the many players I knew good luck, I saw Xuan Liu - who I haven't seen since the $10K WPT Fallsview - walk into the tournament area and chatted with her. Unfortunately for my roommate, she goes to his table. While he wasn't interested in getting a table list, I inform him that one of the best female players in the world (#13 in GPI) had just sat down in his table. Another PartyPoker qualifier had noticed I was chatting with her so he wanted an introduction. So just like I introduced ReefAquarium years ago to Xuan when she was grinding at Fallsview winning against players such as Sylvain Siebert (4th place in this year's WPT Montreal & 5th place last year for total winnings of over $300K! :cool2:), I brought the two qualifiers over to Xuan and she was gracious as always.
I was talking to a couple of players in another table when a friendly Playground manager stops by the table and announces that it wins as having the most number of players (six) just beffore the tourney starts. My Spidey senses goes tingling that it could be mikelbyl and I was right. He continues running off his feet as he does the entire series.
When the tourney starts, I head back to The Lounge. The female guest of a qualifier playing in Day 1B keeps admiring the poker celebrities but is too petrified to say hi or ask for an autograph. Just like I would do for any forumer, I ask her if she wants me to get her cap autographed. Everybody knows that every poker event is a sausage fest, with very few females so it's almost like finding a needle in a haystack. During the first break, I play this "Where's Waldo?" game and manage to get half a dozen autographs of the female celebrities, including Xuan, Maria Ho, Isabell Mercier, and Kara Scott.
These 2 photos are from another event.
Somebody who I haven't seen since WPT Fallsview asked how much they charged me for the autographs. Instead of "Wat??", I replied, "About tree fiddy."
While I'm using my laptop at The Lounge, she shouts, "OMG, OMG, I see SirWatts! Can you please go & get his autograph?" I lock my screen and go to who she pointed to and ask for an autograph, but it turns out not to be SirWatts! Later, she shouts, "OMG, OMG, I see Phil Ivey. Can you please get his autograph?" I think to myself, "WTF would Phil Ivey be doing in a $3850 event??" but I go play her "Where's Waldo?" game again. The darkest players I could see are Victor Ramdin and Faraz "The Toilet" Jaka, and she realizes that she meant Phil Laak, not Ivey. :rolleyes:
When dinner break started, I went to my roommate but we could not talk strategy as he had lined up for the buffet with the same players from his table. I had my usual champagne and he had his usual massage after dinner.
RFG Angelique & Ivy on the way from the hotel to the WPT Party
I was invited to the WPT Party at The Rail Coal Fire Bistro so I go there at 9 PM.
My poker drink of choice are energy drinks so I first ordered a Red Bull to give me wings. The can clearly states "NOT to be mixed with alcohol" but I ignored the warning as my table kept ordering vodka shots after shots after shots...
Marvin Rettenmaier (first-ever back-to-back WPT Champion & #3 in GPI); RFG Angelique and Ivy; and our never-ending peach vodka shots!
Ivy has a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, so I know who to hide behind if there's trouble! The hockey game then UFC were on the big screens, so we watched the Leafs lose to the Canadiens. The autograph seeker asked if I recognize any more celebrities so I play "Where's Waldo?" again in the dark bar and see Matt Salzberg, Weeds producer and WPT Player of the Year. Matt was skeptical that I wanted his autograph for somebody else so I bring him over to the lady and he graciously signs the cap. I eventually fill up her cap with over 20 autographs, including Phil Laak (no Ivey), the real SirWatts, Antonio Esfandiari, Vanessa Selbst, Victor Ramdin, Eugene Katchelov, Sorel Mizzi, timex, and bond18.
Lily Kiletto, Ivy, Matt Salzberg, Will "The Thrill" Failla.
My roommate survives being on the table with Xuan Liu and a couple of One Drop players ($1 million buy-in) in his table and moves on to Day 2. There was no room for dancing in the restaurant/bar, but just when my roommate and I were leaving to his car, somebody asked me to dance.
Oh and, nice TR!
On a poker note it was crazy that one guy made back to back final tables, they guy that won last year bubbled TV in 7th and the guy that came 7th last year made this years final table...
Carry on, great read and liking the pics.
habs mascot?
I'm fine with Ivy for breakfast.
Day 1C was a free day and I was ready to go to anywhere such as gentlemen's clubs, the new Planetarium, Schwartz Deli,
other poker rooms, etc., but unfortunately, my roommate wanted to drive first to Playground then stayed there for the entire day.
While Mike Sexton was playing in Day 1C and already in the tournament area, Vincent Van Patten was hanging around The Lounge. As usual, I asked my roommate if he wanted a photo, then introduced him.
The ladies in The Lounge were talking about the famous urinals in one of the Playground washrooms, but were too chicken to sneak a peek, so I take the following photo:
They all laugh. I ask Vince if he wants me to show him which washroom has them, but he'd rather watch the football game. I ask him which game and which of the many TV screens at Playground he wants to watch it on. Don't tell mikelbyl, but I "hack" one of the TV screens
One of the older qualifiers from the GTA had arrived the previous night without a hotel reservation while all the major hotels were booked. I asked him where he ended up staying, and I was surprised when he said that he stayed with his polar opposite of the young kid from the UK in the penthouse suite with only one bed. I later asked the kid where the old guy slept, and he said that they slept in the same bed. "It's OK, we only cuddled!" He then asked my roommate and I, "Don't you two sleep together?" :rolleyes:
A lot of the Playground managers and supervisors kept going back and forth to The Lounge during the week. At one point, I think it was the promotions manager who brought two of my GTA friends back there. We greeted each other, "WTF are YOU doing here?!" The manager introduced my two friends to the PartyPoker Event Host as Playground VIPs. I asked my friends, "How the &^%$#@! did you two become VIPs already?" They replied that one of them had won over $200,000 in a previous WPT Main Event at Playground, and the other has cashed several times at Playground along with winning a WSOP-C championship gold ring last week.
My two VIP friends wanted the coveted PartyPoker player bag with hoodie, cap and T-shirt to wear during the Main Event. I don't think they were ever given the swag so they were two unhappy VIPs. When there an iPad Air being given out on Day 1C for one randomly chosen player wearing anything PartyPoker, I even had to lend one of them my own "partypoker.net" patch. He never did return my patch, but I'm willing to trade for his WSOP gold ring!
While actyper and I were given as many PartyPoker clothes when we won a WSOP ME package, the two contractors in this event were much more selective on who gets anything. Everybody from players, waitresses and even the shuttle driver were requesting a PartyPoker hoodie, but even I wasn't given one until my final night. Here is my photo of the highly coveted PartyPoker hoodie.
Of the lucky few that got the hoodie, many mentioned that the Canadian flag on the hoodie should be white. I'm a very patriotic Canadian, but IMHO, if the hoodie design is supposed to be artsy with the artist's interpretation of the Canadian map and flag, then using PartyPoker's new colour theme is not too bad instead of a perfect reproduction of the Canadian flag. What do you think of the Canadian flag in the new PartyPoker swag?
Day 1C was similar to previous days: same brunch buffet menu, champagne for brunch and dinner, free drinks between 10:30 AM -12:30 PM and 7-9 PM; using my laptop at The Lounge with free wifi; massage after the dinner buffet.
I had noticed Playboy model Trishelle Cannatella when we were playing the same tournaments earlier in the week, but I think she waited until Day 1C to play the ME. Below is one of her non-nude photos.
OK, take a break and "Google is your friend" for her other photos....
I might as well finish off this WPT Montreal TR before I get too busy with the WPT Fallsview satellites.
Final Day 2: F1 Racing with Kara & other Party Girls
My roommate made it to Day 2, so I suggested to him to do all the things that I did during four days of playing the WSOP Main Event. I got up early and looked at the info from WorldPokerTour.com, Playground, Canada Poker, jontm and mikelbyl. But we both get distracted by Lily Kiletto's "coverage" online.
When we drive to Playground and go to the tournament area, the usual "X-Men Sentinels" were guarding the entrance so we waited for the event hosts to waive us in. My roommate was hoping for a different breakfast menu, but it was the same food four days in a row. Meh, just give me my same-as-always glass of champagne and I'm - "Hic!" - happy.
I go get the list of Day 2 players, tables and prize payouts; I give my roommate a small printout of the players in his table. Strangely, Playground changed my roommate's name into "Stephane." When my roommate showed the young UK qualifier his table list, the kid says, "Ooooh, where is this Stephanie? Is she really hot?" My roommate wanted to knock him out all the way back to the UK!
After the Day 2 start, the Royal Flush Girls, Kara Scott and PartyPoker guests were off to Vortex Racing, the first professional simulation racing centre in North America. On my way out to the shuttle, I saw RFG Angelique sitting down and reminded her, "Aren't you going? We're leaving now."
I also saw SirWatts in the hallway and recognized the depressed body language of having just busted out of a tournament. He asked me if the shuttle is going back to downtown Montreal and I tell him no. I give him the tip of how to get a flat rate from a taxi. The initial taxi refused to take him at first, but he eventually got in. I later learned that he had won a high roller tournament online that weekend so he did better than most of the other players in Day 2.
We arrived at Vortex Racing. We all took off our shoes to put on red racing shoes. I saw Kara Scott being dropped off later so I opened the door for her. Kara, Ivy & Angelique put on the sexy red racing suits and helmets for some WPT Productions filming. All three were very professional in the filming takes. It seems like the whole WPT crew is one big happy family.
We were separated into two groups and the best six scores would go to the finals. Having taught pokerJAH and pkrfce9 Credit Card Roulette, I continued with the degeneracy by proposing a prop bet for the Vortex Racing. Chris Tessaro ended up collecting the money from everybody but Kara, who was afraid that she can never win any bet with Chris.
I was in the same group as Kara, Ivy and Angelique. The new PartyPoker logo was programmed in, just like the many ads you see around a real Formula One racetrack. I spent most of the trial run smashing into the Royal Flush Girls, >:D and Kara won the race. She joined our winner-take-all prop bet. I finally figured out that I should not drive a Formula One race car like my horse-and-buggy from the previous millennium :-[ and in the qualifying race, I beat everybody except the car driven by "Angelique." When I came out to congratulate her, she had been sitting all comfy in the chair eating all that time! It seems that she got a little hurt during the trial run and somebody else drove in her place.
I made it to the finals of the best six scores. A qualifier who used to be a race car driver blew us all away. He was awarded a big bottle of champagne along with the cash bet.
A couple of other ladies from WPT Productions joined in the racing fun. All the ladies I saw during the week employed by WPT/PartyPoker were attractive. After taking a few more photos of the Party girls for pokerJAH's eyes only, I said goodbye to Kara as she was flying back to her new home of Italy.
vortex - YouTube
While driving back in very slow traffic to Playground, the native driver gave us all his version of Kahnawake politics including the Oka Crisis. It seems that there is still a lot of resentment with the Montreal residents, the Quebec and federal governments.
Back at WPT Montreal, almost all of the qualifiers had busted during Day 2. One of them talked to a Playground manager and he was given some free swag to wear back in TO. It looks like I talked to the wrong manager and should have talked to Phil instead! I have my PartyPoker WPT hoodies and other clothing which people like, but I have nothing to wear from Playground in the many poker games I go to.
On our drive back to Toronto the following morning, my roommate and I stopped by OLG Casino Thousand Islands. It had four tables and surprisingly had a tournament going on. They were dealer-dealt instead of electronic. The max rake is only $5 so now I know where to play cash games to and from Playground tournaments. Below is the photo I took.
The drive home took a total of seven hours again, so maybe next time I will have to drive a F1 race car to Playground instead! Hopefully, the Party girls will be back at WPT Fallsview, where pokerJAH and other forumers can "have their cake and eat it too!"
Who wants a first date with Ivy?
Ivy Teves 1st Date - YouTube