The Muck
Card Guards
Bernard Lee
George Lind III
Maverick Movie
Off the Felt
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JUL 05
All Mucked Up: 2012 World Series of Poker Day 39 Live Blog
All Mucked Up is a live blog of all the stuff you want to know at the 2012 World Series of Poker, besides hand histories and bad beats. Well, we might add a few in here, everyone loves a good bad beat story — unless it happened to you. Check back often for polls, soundbites, celebrity sightings, and who knows what else!
May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favor
The fields are stacked today for the conclusion of Event #57: $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em Six Handed and Event #58: $3,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Low Split 8-or-Better. For Event #57, there are plenty of good bets, with great odds since the field still has 27 players remaining. Going at 9/1 is Andrew Lichtenberger, a good bet for a good player in a great tournament format for him. Also still alive is Eugene Katchalov who doesn't have many chips, but if he can get lucky he will be a great bet going at 27/1. Here's a look at some of the notables still in the field.
Andrew Lichtenberger: 9/1
Nick Maimone: 5/1
Keith Lehr: 25/1
Tony Hachem: 17/1
Roberto Romanello: 12/1
Jason Mercier: 12/1
Layne Flack: 20/1
Jason Senti: 12/1
Josh Brikis: 30/1
Carter Phillips: 13/2
Shannon Shorr: 25/1
Edward Sabat: 11/1There are several good bets available for Event #58 as well. Former November Niner Antoine Saout is still alive and going at 15/1. And the most insane bet that we've seen all year: John Guth going at 90/1. Guth has an extremely short stack, but it's Omaha so anything could happen. Scotty Nguyen is also still alive in the field and is going off at odds of 25/1. Here are some of the notables still alive in the field:
Randy Ohel: 19/1
Antoine Saout: 15/1
Bryan Devonshire: 15/1
Stephen Su: 19/2
Roch Sousineau: 11/1
David Baker: 3/1
Anthony Lellouche: 27/1
Scotty Nguyen: 25/1
Yuval Brohnstein: 4/1Bleed American
This gentleman in Event #59: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em - Day 1b was suffering from what we will refer to as an all American hangover. Check it out:
All American, All The TimePoor guy, that stuff probably wont ever wash out. At least we know he loves his country. Looks like a bit of dye even got down into his beard.
Found on a Rio Urinal
Earlier in the series, PokerNews' Live Reporting Global Manager Donnie Peters found an apple on a Rio Toilet:
How Much Would Someone Have To Pay You To Eat This Apple? #PropbetsToday, we found something a little different on the Rio urinals:
Free Poker Training! From Jonathan Little!30 seconds on the clock, lets see how many funny things we can come up with: Couldn't you have found a better spot for product placement Jonathan Little? Haven't you ever heard the phrase, don't pee where you teach? We wonder how many people will 1. grab the card, 2. sign up for the training lessons after having found it on a urinal. $4million in tournament winnings and you couldn't find a better place to advertise for training lessons?
We might catch up with Little a little later and ask him about the decision to leave his calling card on the Rio urinals.
Follow Up, With Jonathan Little
We tweeted at Jonathan Little about the cards found on the urinal advertising for his training lessons, and he got back to us via twitter. Here's what he said:
@MrCleverFox affiliates can do whatever they want. Anything I do will be at @BlueSharkOptics or @3BetClothing booths.
July 05 2012FollowWhich he followed up by saying:
Poor Little. Not only is his name plastered all over the Rio urinals, it's spelled wrong too. We guess that's what happens when you win $4 million in tournaments.
The Card Protector Chronicles: Day 39
It's been a while since we've done an issue of the Card Protector Chronicles, and with one of the largest fields of the series in Event #59: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em - Day 1b, now was a better time than any to hop back on the bandwagon.
Unfortunately, there weren't a slew of awesome card protectors that donkeys use today in the field, but we did manage to find a couple.
The first one that we saw was this awesome, scaly lizard/dinosaur like creature:
If I were a dealer, I'd be sure not to muck anyones cards with that sitting on them. Not only was that one of the more noticeable card protectors, it was also one of the larger ones we've seen as well. We wonder if the owner has to feed him chips for all his duties.
The second one we saw was this very unique spider/Pepsi can UFO.
We're not sure how good of a job this thing does protecting cards, or it it's dangerous to move between hands, but it certainly caught our eye. It appears as if the thing is made completely out of a cut up pepsi can. We're not sure if it's intended purpose was to protect cards either, or if it was just meant to sit on top of a chip stack. Either way, we think it's still good for the game.
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JUL 04
All Mucked Up: 2012 World Series of Poker Day 38 Live Blog
All Mucked Up is a live blog of all the stuff you want to know at the 2012 World Series of Poker, besides hand histories and bad beats. Well, we might add a few in here, everyone loves a good bad beat story — unless it happened to you. Check back often for polls, soundbites, celebrity sightings, and who knows what else!
May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favor
No rest for the weary in the aftermath of the Big One for One-Drop. There’s still plenty of poker to be played. Be prepared for fireworks in Event 56: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em. Only 21 players remain in the quest for the $661,022 first prize. Here are the odds for some of the notables courtesy of the Rio sports book:
Peter Eastgate: 3/1
Will Failla: 70/1
Sam Holden: 50/1
Donald Vogel: 4/1
Mick Graydon: 19/2
Gianluca Mattia: 2/1
David Borg: 6/1
Bastian Fischer: 15/1Independence Day
Poker is as American as apple pie. In honor of our Founding Fathers, which do you think would make the best poker player?
Red White And Blue
We came across several players decked out in patriotic gear today.
PokerNews Live Reporter Paul Orsteen
We'll be sure to post more throughout the day.
Look Who’s Back!
Peter Eastgate took a much-publicized break from poker shortly after his 2008 WSOP Main Event win, but he’s resurfaced recently. He’s currently third in chips in Event 56: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em. We’ll do our best to catch up with Eastgate to see what he's been up to and also ask him how it feels to be playing poker again.
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JUL 03
Poker Pros React to Antonio Esfandiari's $18 Million Win and the Big One for One Drop
On Tuesday, Antonio Esfandiari was awarded the largest prize in poker history. He defeated Sam Trickett in the $1 million buy-in Big One for One Drop, to pocket $18,346,673. Shortly after his win, we caught up with poker pros who were at the Rio to get their reactions on Esfandiari's win and the event in general.
First we caught up with Jennifer Tilly who was standing in the hallway on break from Event #58: $3,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Low Split 8-or-Better.
“It was fantastic,” Tilly said about the final table. “I was playing in the same room and just listening and watching I got the chills. The hair stood up on my arms. I never doubted that he could do it though. He took a positive mentality lecture a while back and he's been really focused ever since. He sent an email to Phil the other day saying 'This is my time.'”
“It was a fantastic final table though and I think it will be really exciting for the viewers," she continued. “Guy was there, and of course Phil Hellmuth Jr. and he's always a crowd favorite. Then our really good friend Brian Rast was there. I feel like it's going to be awesome for television, but the only thing is that the Main Event is going to feel a little anti-climatic after this.”
We noticed that Phil Laak wasn't in the crowd for Esfandiari's win, so we asked Tilly about it.
“He was there for a little bit and he was on the rail, but there was too many people there for him. He doesn't like big crowds. Too much energy. He was watching the closed circuit though and he texted me after he won.”
“I cried a lot,” Laak said in the text to Tilly. “When he gave the bracelet to his dad, I cried again. Super baller.”
“All the boys are out partying now,” she told us.
Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier told us, “I think it's pretty good. It would've been nice to see Guy [Laliberte] win since it was his event and he does so much for charity, but Antonio is a good player and he played great. It's still really great.”
Erik Seidel gave us a bit of insight into the outcome of the Big One for One Drop as well.
“I think it's great for poker. For me, it was an odd situation because I wanted the business men to win who were gonna give the money to charity, but it was also cool to see two elite players battle it out heads-up for the money. I think Sam is arguably the best no-limit tournament player in the world at the moment, and obviously Antonio's a great player who's been around a long time so it was a monster heads-up match. I hope I'll still be playing in years to come, I want to. I can't see it being an annual thing though. Bi-annual would be my guess.”
Jonathan Duhamel and Haralabos Voulgaris were standing in the hallway on break from Event #57: $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em Six Handed so we asked them for some reactions as well.
“I think it's really cool, and congrats to him for win,” Duhamel said. “He's a really good guy and he speaks well so I think he will be a very good ambassador for the poker players. I would've liked to see Guy win though since he does so much for everyone.”
We asked the two if this victory will change the landscape of poker, and both of them agreed that not much will change because of this.
“Most of the pros who were playing the event didn't actually have that much of themselves, so it won't change too much. But having a pro win, and a pro come second will be good for the poker economy because that way the money will flow back in, and it won't just vanish,” Voulgaris said.
Follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.
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JUL 03
All Mucked Up: 2012 World Series of Poker Day 37 Live Blog
All Mucked Up is a live blog of all the stuff you want to know at the 2012 World Series of Poker, besides hand histories and bad beats. Well, we might add a few in here, everyone loves a good bad beat story — unless it happened to you. Check back often for polls, soundbites, celebrity sightings, and who knows what else!
Check out the odds for today's Event #54: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em, taking place in the Pavilion room today.
Luis Campelo 18/1
Carl Le 9/2
Ken Fishman 5/2
Nghi Van Tran 17/2
Jeffery Fielder 22/1
Clayton Fletcher 22/1
Brett Schwertley 14/1
Ian Chan 21/1
Jason Thompkins 9/2
Benjamin Volpe 19/2
Muhamet Perati 17/2
Will Jaffe 8/5
Benjamin Grise 13/2
David 'Bakes' Baker 8/1
Joe Kuether 11/1We know you all want to hear about the odds for Event #55: $1,000,000 The Big One for One Drop - No-Limit Hold'em, but for some reason the Rio Sportsbook isn't offering them. We'll try to find out more as the day goes on. Either way, you can tune into the One Drop here. Enjoy the day.
Stacked Field In 10k 6Max
There's not one table in today's Event #57: $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em / Six Handed that doesn't have a big name pro on it. On the stroke of noon, we took a turn through the brasilia room to see who we recognised, and we saw Brian 'Stinger' Hastings, Lex Veldhuis, Andrew 'luckychewy' Lichtenberger, Terrence Chan and Chris Moorman among many others.
Aaron 'aeones' Jones (front) and Eugene Katchalov
Mike 'timex' McDonald and Isaac 'Ike' Haxton (front)Finally we came across one of the hardest working men in poker, desperate for his first bracelet of the year after busting the One Drop yesterday, Mr. Phil Ivey. Ivey was on time today and in his chair by noon, a sign of how determined he is at this point of the series. Already at 12:15pm he has a mini-rail forming behind him. He's pretty oblivious to the crowd as usual.
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JUL 02
Off the Felt With Shaun the Dealer: Fame, Fortune, and Twitter
You may recognize Shaun Harris from televised poker, but not as a poker player. Shaun Harris, or "Shaun the Dealer," has dealt numerous high-profile events, and has developed quite the reputation because of it. In his career he has dealt the Main Event final table for four years, he has also dealt the $50,000 Poker Players Championship as well as the Tournament of Champions. Sunday, his task was to deal at the Big One for One Drop. PokerNews caught up with Harris to ask him a few quick questions about his job, the fan base he has gathered, and his relationships with some of the poker pros.
Does it ever get nerve wracking doing your job; being in so many high pressure situations?
It does. And I'm not going to deny it, either. I've been dealing since '05. I've done the Main Event final table since '07. I did the Tournament of Champions in '09.
What sets you apart from the other dealers that gets you to deal at higher-profile events like this?
I think it's very obvious that I enjoy what I do. I learn and practice dealing all the games and I seldom make mistakes. It just shows that all the work I do is really paying off.
Do you have a relationship with any of the pros? If so, how have those come about for you?
It was very surprising to me really that they remembered me. I remember two years ago at the Poker Players Championship final table, I was dealing to Michael Mizrachi, and I ended up dealing him a pretty bad beat, but after the tournament he came up to me and talked to me and we ended up becoming very good friends. Even Phil Ivey will come up to me sometimes and say hi to me before I say hi to him. It's flattering and it's very good for me, too, because that might be that extra step I need to set myself apart. It also helps me because eventually I want to start coming from the other side of the table and playing a little bit.
Are you a very big player then?
I do play a lot, but I only play $2/$5 and $1/$3. I don't play a lot of tournaments because I don't have the patience to sit there. I like to just get the money in and win. I like to grind it out.
One of the other things we meant to ask you about was the big following that you're starting to develop on Twitter.
Oh, that's a funny story. Back in October, I only had very few followers on Twitter, maybe only 10 or 20. I remember I was dealing at the PCA in the Bahamas and Jonathan Duhamel came up to me and he recognized me as the dealer who dealt his winning hand from the 2010 final table, and he ended up shouting out a tweet to me. On that day I ended up getting to like 100 followers, and from there I was all the way up to 500. Today, Daniel Negreanu recognized me and he shot out a tweet to me too. I went from 787 followers to over a thousand today, maybe almost 1,200 in just one hour.
Would you say you're the most famous dealer?
I wouldn't say I'm the most famous. I am one of the more noticeable dealers. Twitter helps a lot. I'm not going to say that I do my job better than these guys (pointing to his coworkers); I'm not much different than any of my coworkers. They do the same job as me and work just as hard.
“He's definitely the most famous dealer,” one of his coworkers chimed in.
You can follow "Shaun the Dealer" on Twitter: @Shaunthedealer. He is currently back to work dealing at Event 55: $1,000,000 Big One for One Drop and you can follow the PokerNews coverage of the event here.
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JUL 02
All Mucked Up: 2012 World Series of Poker Day 36 Live Blog
All Mucked Up is a live blog of all the stuff you want to know at the 2012 World Series of Poker, besides hand histories and bad beats. Well, we might add a few in here, everyone loves a good bad beat story — unless it happened to you. Check back often for polls, soundbites, celebrity sightings, and who knows what else!
May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favor
Only 28 players remain in Event 53: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em. Here are the odds of some of the notables courtesy of the Rio Sports book:
Victoria Coren: 7/1
Lee Childs: 14/1
Bryan Piccioli: 6/1
Max Steinberg: 14/1
Age Ravn: 21/1
Getty Mattingsley: 35/1
Matthew Graham: 17/1
Ryan Hughes: 8/1One Drop Table Draws: Day 2
Seat Player Count Table 445 1 Frederic Banjout 7,070,000 2 Chamath Palihapitiya 635,000 3 John Morgan 2,000,000 4 Ilya Bulychev 1,880,000 5 Paul Newey 3,225,000 6 Mike Sexton 5,740,000 7 Vivek Rajkumar 1,270,000 8 --Empty-- N/A Table 446 1 Cary Katz 2,785,000 2 Bill Perkins 885,000 3 Guy Laliberté 6,555,000 4 Phil Galfond 445,000 5 Tom Dwan 4,810,000 6 Daniel Negreanu 470,000 7 Mikhail Smirnov 4,680,000 8 --Empty-- N/A Table 447 1 Tobias Reinkemeier 1,220,000 2 Noah Schwartz 3,120,000 3 Richard Yong 3,430,000 4 Bob Bright 3,880,000 5 Jason Mercier 4,210,000 6 Roland De Wolfe 2,960,000 7 David Einhorn 3,795,000 8 Phil Ruffin 3,750,000 Table 448 1 Gus Hansen 6,800,000 2 Haralabos Voulgaris 2,250,000 3 Brian Rast 10,710,000 4 Philipp Gruissem 3,600,000 5 Bobby Baldwin 4,225,000 6 Rick Salomon 3,285,000 7 Phil Ivey 2,840,000 8 Phil Hellmuth 8,395,000 Table 449 1 Antonio Esfandiari 6,880,000 2 Sam Trickett 6,700,000 3 Dan Shak 3,190,000 4 Tom Marchese 3,740,000 5 Brandon Steven 4,770,000 6 Ben Lamb 5,770,000 7 Talal Shankerchi 2,760,000 8 --Empty-- N/A -
JUL 01
All Mucked Up: 2012 World Series of Poker Day 35 Live Blog
All Mucked Up is a live blog of all the stuff you want to know at the 2012 World Series of Poker, besides hand histories and bad beats. Well, we might add a few in here, everyone loves a good bad beat story — unless it happened to you. Check back often for polls, soundbites, celebrity sightings, and who knows what else!
May The Odds Be Ever In your Favor
Here are the odds for the final table for Event 51: Ladies No-Limit Hold’em
Angela Moed: 19/2
Freda Lawrence: 14/1
Debbie Pechac: 3/2
Janet Howard: 10/1
Candida Ross-Powers: 8/5
Lesley Amos: 3/1
Yen Dang: 2/1
Rae Rocco: 13/2
Ida Lundholm: 6/1Event 52: 10 Game Mix/Six Handed resumes today with 19 players remaining. Here are the odds for some of the notables in the field:
Bryn Kenny: 13/1
Vanessa Selbst: 7/2
Chris Bjorin: 10/1
Scott Clements: 11/1
Lee Goldman: 12/1One-Drop Countdown
The Amazon Room in the Rio is absolutely electric this afternoon. Throngs of media, fans, and players are all around. A tournament with a $1,000,000 buy-in will tend to do that.
Reactions from One-Drop Players
Player introductions took place in the revamped Thunderdome before the start of the tournament accompanied by drumbeats from Cirque du Soleil performers. The biggest cheers were reserved for Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, Antonito Esfandiari, and Gus Hansen.
We caught up few a few players to get their thoughts on the event.
Phil Galfond says, “It’s exciting. It’s great for poker.”
We asked Andrew Robl what his game plan was for the day.
“I looked at my table draw. Poker is poker. I’m gonna try to do what I always do.”
Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi had one word to describe today's event.
"Exciting!"
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JUN 30
Erik Audé: From Hollywood To Hell To WSOP
“I wasn’t gonna be anybody’s bitch!”
This isn’t just another story about a Hollywood actor playing in a World Series of Poker event. You may recognize Erik Audé from his roles in Dude, Where’s My Car and Van Wilder, but his most compelling work is in an episode of Locked Up Abroad, except this wasn’t a movie — it was real life. A series on the National Geographic television channel, it takes viewers inside the firsthand accounts of people who have been imprisoned in foreign countries for drug smuggling.
In 2002, Audé was attempting to transport leather goods from Pakistan into the United States. He was stopped and searched in Islamabad International Airport. Unbeknownst to him, the merchandise concealed 3.6 kilos of opium. He was arrested and sentenced to seven years in a Pakistani prison, a virtual death sentence for an American. The episode recounts the torture he endured at the hands of the prison guards, and the violence he faced from fellow prisoners.
We spotted Audé playing in Day 2 of Event #50: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em and spoke to him at break.
How’s the tournament going so far?
I actually woke up late for it yesterday. I was planning on playing the Daily Rio Deep Stack, but it was like 2:40 and at the last second I decided to play the $5K. I got about 270,000 in chips right now [top ten in chips at the time].
Is this your first time playing in the WSOP?
No, I played two years ago and cashed in an event. I’m friends with a lot of the players. I know the Mizrachi brothers and Chino [Rheem]. I hung out with them to celebrate the night Mike won the $50K [$50,000 Poker Players Championship]. I stay with Tony Hachem anytime I’m in Australia. I also know Kristy Gazes really well.
Do you have any upcoming projects?
I just wrapped up shooting for A Killer Of Men. Joe Reitman is in it too.
Let's talk about Locked Up Abroad. They usually have actors re-enact the events, but you actually played yourself.
They were after me for like six years to go on there and tell my story. I actually hated the show. The actors were horrible and I didn’t wanna be lumped in with the rest of the people from past episodes cause they were all guilty. I got them to agree to let me play myself in it. The show kind of made me look like “The Terminator” (a scene is re-enacted where he takes on several prisoners at once in a fight). I mean, when I went into that prison, I wasn’t gonna be anybody’s bitch. I was lucky that most Pakistanis are small people. [Laughs]
How did you get started in poker?
Well, in prison. I read a lot of books, including a Texas hold’em book. I really wanted that to come out in the show, but they had to condense a 13-hour interview into 45 minutes. I became friends with another prisoner who was on death row, his name was Murad and he showed me how to play too. [Audé, overcome with emotion, paused for a moment before continuing]. I’m sorry. He was one of my best friends. I owe so much to him. One night he shared his meal with me. He didn’t tell me it was his last meal before being executed the very next day.
Audé finished 10th in Event #50. Read about his run in the PokerNews Live Reporting Blog and follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.
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JUN 30
All Mucked Up: 2012 World Series of Poker Day 34 Live Blog
All Mucked Up is a live blog of all the stuff you want to know at the 2012 World Series of Poker, besides hand histories and bad beats. Well, we might add a few in here, everyone loves a good bad beat story — unless it happened to you. Check back often for polls, soundbites, celebrity sightings, and who knows what else!
$1,500 Madness
We caught some pics of the queue for Event #53: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em this morning. This is the biggest queue we've seen yet. After missing out on yesterdays Ladies Event, all the men in Las Vegas seem to be refreshed, reinvigorated and ready to play today - but not one of them thought to register yesterday!
The other possibility is that a lot of people have been slow rolling the poker world and are going to sign up for the One Drop this morning! Lets hope that's the case (even though it's sold out shhhh)! Either way it's one of the all time biggest WSOP queue's, confirmed by Brent Hanks.
The Last Satellite
All roads lead here, the final satellite for Event #55: $1,000,000 The Big One for One Drop - No-Limit Hold'em. Among all the hopefuls and super satellite luck boxes are some big name pros, all desperate to play in the biggest ever World Series Of Poker Event. Below we can see Brian 'Stinger' Hastings, who wanted to buy in but didn't register in time, Justin Bonomo, who actually has his name down to provide commentary on the event along side Olivier Busquet, and Issac 'ike' Haxton.
For some players the grind never ends. Jason Mercier and Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier are on the official On Drop list already and have paid their money, but have still entered the 25K Satellite today. Why? They can still win the million! It's just another big event to these guys!
We'll keep you posted on how the Satellite unfolds.
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JUN 30
What Would You Do With a One Drop Buy-In?
On Sunday, the World Series of Poker will host the $1 Million Big One for One Drop — the largest buy-in poker tournament in history. To put that into perspective, the first Main Event winner to earn $1 million was Brad Daugherty, who won in 1991. Prior to that year, the first-place prize was $895,000 or less, and the first six Main Events had a combined top prize of only $830,000.
We still ogle at six-figure buy-in events — although they’re starting to lose their luster — but seven-figures is something else. The Big One is going to be very special, and Sunday can’t come soon enough, but the buy-in got us to thinking: What else could we buy with a million dollars?
We’d still set aside $111,111 for charity, but with $888,889 of disposable income, we can assure you that we’d have a blast.
Two Courtside Seats to see the New York Knicks ($6,000)
If you don’t like the Knicks, then insert your favorite basketball team. Don’t like basketball? Then insert whatever team you like. All-in-all there’s nothing like a front row ticket to a professional sporting event, and Madison Square Garden is “The World’s Most Famous Arena.” It’s also the Mecca of basketball, and if you pick a Knicks/Heat game or a Knicks/Laker game, the crowd is going to be absolutely bonkers — even if it’s a regular season game. You will also have a chance to chill with poker player Dan Shak and Spike Lee, who both sit courtside for dozens of Knicks games each year.
Two Seats at the 50-Yard Line for the Super Bowl ($11,600)
If the Knicks tickets don’t entice you, then this has to pique your interest. The Super Bowl is the most-watched event in American sports, and sitting at the 50-yard line (which is the center of the field for all of you fútbol fans) would be a remarkable experience. Super Bowl weekend is an event in and of itself with all of the parties and expos, and this year the game is in New Orleans — a great party city. If you want to bring two more friends, then double the price and bring them along. After all, when you have $888,889, what’s the difference between $11,600 and $23,200?
Ten Main Event Buy-Ins ($100,000)
This list has to have something related to poker, right? The Main Event is the softest $10,000 buy-in event each year — every professional player will tell you that. The upside of winning the event is also unmatched, because the winner not only takes home anywhere from eight to nine million dollars, he or she is also the ambassador for poker, and will forever be remembered as a world champion. Personally, I would gladly take on the role of ambassador for this game, and the title “world champion” sounds pretty sweet.
The worst-case scenario is that I brick all 10 events, and attribute my losses to #JustBadLuck.
A replica of the Ghostbusters car ($80,000)
Back in May, The Sun reported that Paul Harbourne, a 49-year old “geek” from England, created an exact replica of “Ecto 1” — the car from Ghostbusters. Harbourne was forced to look worldwide for the perfect 1959 Cadillac to work on, and spent more than £50,000 on tools, lights, sirens, paint and more. Who needs a Lamborghini, or some kind of fancy, push-to-start whip when you have the car from Ghostbusters? This is absolutely a must-have, and if I have to pay more than the £50,000 Harbourne spent to make it, I will.
Full Tilt Poker (About $3.50)
What? Too soon?
Two 90” LED TVs ($22,000)
Sharp and Mitsubishi have recently debuted 90-inch LED televisions — the biggest in the world — but Sharp’s version comes with a few more amenities, including 3D technology, web browsing, Skype capability, and built-in WiFi. Why two, you ask? Because there are always multiple things to watch on television, and DVR doesn’t apply to live events — aka sports. So, when your significant other wants to watch something, and you want to watch something else, you can do so peacefully. When someone wants to play video games while the other one watches television, it all works out. And on Sundays, when there’s fifteen NFL games on TV, you can catch nearly every play using two TVs and the very popular Redzone Channel.
100 pairs of shoes ($15,000)
The average pair of Nike iD shoes costs $150, so multiply that by 100, and you have $15,000. Shoes are awesome, and you can tell a lot about a person by what kind of shoes they tend to wear. Personally, I like to wear colorful shoes that stand out, but there are also days where I can throw on a casual pair of kicks to keep comfortable. I could easily wear a new pair of shoes each day, making 100 a good number, because I could wear a pair once every three months. If you don’t like shoes, spend this money on some other kind of clothing: jackets, hoodies, purses, bags, funny t-shirts, or jewelry.
But please, for the love of Mike Sexton, don’t buy basketball shorts and flip flops.
A house in Valencia, CA ($550,000)
Las Vegas is a little daunting, but if I were to buy a house, I would at least buy one close enough that I could come whenever I want. Likewise, I’d prefer to stay on the West Coast because it’s the best coast (see what I did there). Valencia, California, is 40 minutes north of Los Angeles, which means it’s nice and quiet, and it’s also going to be less expensive. A quick Google search produced dozens of homes in our price-range, and it’s not like we’re trying to ball out and buy a mansion — we can do that when we win the Main Event using one or more of our ten buy-ins. This would obviously be our biggest purchase using the budget, but it’s also a good investment because the value of a home (in theory) should increase.
Two giant Ferguson Hill speakers ($20,216.25)
WHAT? WHAT DID YOU SAY? I CAN’T HEAR YOU OVER THESE GIANT SPEAKERS!!
Condo in Canada for Online Poker ($1,900/mo)
Life in America is tough without PokerStars, so finding a place to live outside of the country is a must. Europe and Asia are too far — and the time zone difference is too large — but Montreal, Quebec, Canada, is a perfect spot. It’s close, it’s hip, and you can get by with just English. In truth, this was a toss up between Toronto and Montreal, but Montreal ultimately won because they have poutine, and poutine is delicious.
A donation to One Drop ($111,111)
Guy Laliberté deserves a ton of credit for heading the One Drop Foundation, and doing everything he can to provide safe, clean water to those in need. Despite being the most basic and most accessible resource in most first-world countries, clean water is a treasure in countless third-world nations, and something needs to be done about it. Most of us will see the Big One for One Drop as a sick event where cold-blooded poker players and rich businessmen battle for millions of dollars, but at the end of the day, it’s a great way to raise (at least) $5,333,328 for those in need.
That’s how I’d spend my million dollars – how about you?
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