Women in poker Hall of Fame

I was just looking at the nominations for the induction to the Women in Poker Hall of Fame and here are my thoughts:

Betty Carey: Great choice! Although I have never played with her, I have heard of her and she is one of the pioneering fearless lady players.

Phyllis Caro: Seems like she has worked in many different aspect of the industry and as brought a lot to it. I like that.

Nani Dollison: This girl has 3 bracelets and quite a great poker folio! Although she seems to have slowed down in the last 2 years, the previous ones are quite impressive. She is also a supporter of ladies events and plays them frequently.

Annie Duke: With her winning records, her WSOP bracelet, her books, poker video's, charity work and constant teaching and contribution to the game she definitely deserves to be in a Poker Hall of Fame. Maybe not the woman's one though, as she is not a supporter of ladies events. If you look under the rules for elections, under the 3rd rule it clearly states: "Eligible Candidates for Induction — Candidates to be eligible must meet the following requirements:
-Player/industry leader must be a proponent of women's poker. Even is she does not play in women's events, she must support them."

Jennifer Harman: Definitely a good choice, with 2 bracelets, amazing results and charity work. Although she unfortunately does not play ladies events, she does not seem to object to them.

Kathy Liebert: As far as tournament results this girl is quite a machine!!! She has made over 5.3 million in tournament career winnings over the years and is still going strong. She also once was a ladies event player.

JJ Liu: She plays it all... main events, ladies events, mix games... you name the tournament and she plays, and wins too! This lady is always so sweet and well dressed, yet fearless and very aggressive at the table!

My number one pick goes to Kathy Liebert for her constant records, for being the highest tournament winner and her support of ladies events. My second choice is going to either JJ Liu or Nani Dollison for their continuous support of ladies events and for kicking ass at poker! I still have a few days to make up my mind on who to pick. :)

I am definitely looking forward to the ceremony on September 3rd!

Women in poker Hall of Fame

I was just looking at the nominations for the induction to the Women in Poker Hall of Fame and here are my thoughts:

Betty Carey: Great choice! Although I have never played with her, I have heard of her and she is one of the pioneering fearless lady players.

Phyllis Caro: Seems like she has worked in many different aspect of the industry and as brought a lot to it. I like that.

Nani Dollison: This girl has 3 bracelets and quite a great poker folio! Although she seems to have slowed down in the last 2 years, the previous ones are quite impressive. She is also a supporter of ladies events and plays them frequently.

Annie Duke: With her winning records, her WSOP bracelet, her book, poker video's, charity work and constant teaching and contribution to the game she definitely deserves to be in a Poker Hall of Fame. Maybe not the woman's one though, as she is not a supporter of ladies events. If you look under the rules for elections, under the 3rd rule it clearly states: "Eligible Candidates for Induction — Candidates to be eligible must meet the following requirements:
-Player/industry leader must be a proponent of women's poker. Even is she does not play in women's events, she must support them."

Jennifer Harman: Definitely a good choice, with 2 bracelets, amazing results and charity work. Although she unfortunately does not play ladies events, she does not seem to object to them.

Kathy Liebert: As far as tournament results this girl is quite a machine!!! She has made over 5.3 million in tournament career winnings over the years and is still going strong. She also once was a ladies event player.

JJ Liu: She plays it all... main events, ladies events, mix games... you name the tournament and she plays, and wins too! This lady is always so sweet and well dressed, yet fearless and very aggressive at the table!

My number one pick goes to Kathy Liebert for her constant records, for being the highest tournament winner and her support of ladies events. My second choice is going to either JJ Liu or Nani Dollison for their continuous support of ladies events and for kicking ass at poker! I still have a few days to make up my mind on who to pick. :)

I am definitely looking forward to the ceremony on September 3rd!

There's a secret?

I came home today completely disgusted from my tournament results thus far and with a love /hate relationship with poker.

My moral was way down... So I grabbed a copy of "the Secret". For those who do not know what it is, "The Secret" is a book on positive mind set. It teaches you how to make your dreams come true through the laws of attraction. I read it before but it's been quite a while ago and felt I could use some reading on positivism. I am 2 chapter in and it totally works! I can see that I was looking at things from the wrong angles!

Here are a few quotes on the subject that I think you guys might like:

"If you are gonna be thinking anyway, you may as well think big". ~Donald Trump

"A man is the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes". ~Gandhi

"If you can dream it, you can do it. Always remember that this whole thing was
started with a dream and a mouse". ~Walt Disney

"Everything you can imagine is real". ~Pablo Picasso

"Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you". ~Oprah

"I dream for a living" ~Steven Spielberg

"To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance". ~Oscar Wilde

"The ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do". ~Steve Jobs (co founder Apple Inc.)

"Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy". ~Ann Frank

"Just play, have fun. Enjoy the game" ~Michael Jordan

"Whether you think you can or think you can't, you are right". ~Henry Ford

"No matter how hard the past, one can always begin again today". ~Buddha


Now that I am getting all pumped up again, I will play some satellites tomorrow and kick some major ass at poker in the weeks to come!

I am sooo reading the whole book!

Happy Birthday to me!

What a busy week!

Last weekend was mainly focused on ladies events so my friend Doralee Rae (aka Lady Pink) decided to throw a party for all of the gals at her fabulous house on Monday night after all the ladies events were over. It was a lady’s only evening and everyone had to wear pink. All I can say is that girl sure knows how to host a party! Wow! She had lots of food and a full bar with fancy drinks for everyone, really hot cabana boys in jeans, black camisoles and pink cowboy hats to serve us. Marcos Questas and Ruta Maria came over to do a Tango demonstration. Doralee read us a special poem that she wrote for poker. It was also perfect timing to celebrate Stacy Nutini's victory as she won the Ladies LIPS Championship the night before... way to go Stacy! It was so nice to catch up with all the ladies in a different setting than poker.

This week was also my birthday!
I turned 22 years old for the 16th time! :)
I was not planning on celebrating since my focus was mainly on poker as I was playing the $1500 No Limit Hold'em event #30 at WSOP on the day of. However, the night before I ended up going out with friends to a last minute birthday dinner at Yard House in Town Square. I was actually surprised, being last minute and in the middle of the WSOP that most of them could make it! The food was good, the company was great and to my surprise there was a vegan cake made for me! It was awesome!





I was playing the WSOP on the very day of my birthday. Everything was going smoothly and I built up my stack pretty high. I had around 30 to 40 big blinds for most of the tournament and birthday luck was on my side. Unfortunately, I got crippled in one of the last levels of the day with KK vs 1010 all in pre-flop. He flopped a set and I was left short stack. I then got a table change, which I must say was one of the most fun tables I have played in a long time. Everyone was friendly and joking around which is great to see at the end of the night. I played short stack strategy and survived for quite a while as nobody ever called me when I went all in. During the last level of the night my birthday luck left me and I got knock out after 12 hours of play at 335th out of 2394 players. Unfortunately they were paying only 243 players.





It's getting a little frustrating for me as I have been getting deep in every single event I played only to bust in the very end of the day, close to the money. I believe that if lady luck would be on my side a little more I would do amazing and get to the final table. I have been playing really good, but getting really unlucky in those late levels. I actually feel the Phil Hellmuth quote: "If there weren't luck involved, I would win every time."

I am gonna take a few days off to refocus and prepare myself for the next tournament. Until then I will be playing cash games & satellites, going to yoga and having some ME time!

WSOP Ladies (and few men?) event #22

I played the WSOP Ladies Championship Event #22 this weekend. Of all the events, it is the one that I look forward to the most. There is a camaraderie and complicity in that event that you do not find in any of the other mix ones. Plus, we all have to admit, it makes for a pretty good looking crowd!

Unfortunately as it’s been for the last few years, some guys could not help themselves and had to register for it. Technically, under discrimination laws, they are totally allowed to do so, but does that mean it is ethical? I think not. There are plenty of low buy-in events that they can go for throughout the WSOP; it makes for a lot of empathy towards them and bad publicity. Some girls are not comfortable playing mix events and would never play in a WSOP, but because it is ladies only they make a point to fly into Vegas to play it. The whole week is geared towards ladies tournament in various casinos, and these women come for the week to play them all.

I was told that some of the men, including Shaun Deeb, were playing for charity, but why not pick out a regular event to do so? Would these same guys crash the Seniors event or the casino employee one? So why pick on the ladies event? It's totally rude! Hopefully playing with us has made them realize it was a bad decision and they will be humble from it and respectfully stay away next time!

I was sponsored by Deliverance Poker for that event and was seen sporting their gear. Pretty cute stuff too actually!
Deliverance Poker is a new poker site for players that is launching in the next month. I am really looking forward to playing on there as I think it's gonna be quite revolutionary. Their tag line is: "Don't get screwed on the river" which should give you all an idea of what's to come with them! They have already signed some big time pro's including 2010 WSOP $50,000 Player's Championship winner Micheal Mizrachi and his brother's. Definitely a great team to start with!

I played awesome for most of the event and had a lot of chips throughout the day. I played for nearly 13 hours and ended up busting just before the end of the day one, in the last level with a little under 180 players left. I feel really good about the way I played, but got unlucky in the end. Unfortunately when those blinds get up there, luck needs to be on your side and your hands need to hold up! After losing a few pots, I ended up shoving with Q10s in the cut off position with 11 blinds left. I talked to numerous pro's about my last shove and most said it was the right one, including my mentor The Maven. Two of them said I could have played it a little different but overall, I do not think it was a mistake. I took a chance,I had position, it was just unfortunate that the girl to my left woke up with JJ and they held up.

There were 1,054 players in the event and 117 where getting paid, again, a long day but not quite good enough. I understand the win rate in tournaments is 1% and cash rate is about 10-15% so I am not discouraged. I am playing better than most; I just have to be patient. This is my year... my time will come!

Event 16 WSOP deep run... but not good enough!

My WSOP started this week with event 16, 6-handed No-Limit Hold'em. I was very excited to play that one as 6-handed is my game of choice when playing cash games or «sit and go's » online. I also like to play a lot of hands, so, being shorthanded works great for me!

The first table I got was absolutely fantastic! No known names and the players were fairly weak. I was running them over! My reads where great, my bluff worked my hands hold up. I could not ask for anything better! Unfortunately, the table broke and I was sent to a new table.

My new table was a lot tougher, I had Bryan Micon to my right along with a few internet pros. Now for those who don't know Micon, he is this great winning player who also owns a podcast radio show that talks about Poker, girls, sex and anything that can be a little X-rated... He's kind of the Howard Stern of online radio with a focus on poker. You guys can actually listen to him on Wednesday nights at 7:30 Pacific time at www.donkdown.com/radio. Micon, like me, has also trained with "The Maven" in the past. So, it was kind of cool and strange at the same time to play next to someone who knew the same style of play and tricks. We didn't really get involved in too many big pots together, so I guess that was a good thing!

The tournament started with 1662 players and I was holding my own for most of the time but I ended up busting in the early 300th. Unfortunately they where paying only 162... So, not quite enough! The level before dinner break was not great for me and I started chipping down. I ended up coming back from dinner break with a small stack and went all in with AJ preflop. Got called by KQ, the flop became a King and the rest is history.

I actually have to give some kudos to the WSOP. The new kitchen now has a new wrap/salad bar which is awesome. Players can finally eat well in there! I also love how the rooms are now set up, and that there is a wider variety of buy -ins to fit every budget. I am definitely even more excited to play this year!

This week is going to be a fun one as all the ladies events are in town. I am especially looking forward to the WSOP one on Friday. I have a great feeling about that one... It's my time to take it down. I am ready!!!

It's finally that time of the year!

It's been quite a slow start for me this WSOP season as I was feeling under the weather. I didn't really want to waste money in a big buy-in event knowing that I was not feeling my best. I was very disappointed not to be part of the first week of tournament action, but I was good and stayed home.

I finally felt a little better by Tuesday and decided to play the Mega Stack at Caesar's Palace. They had a pretty good turnout with 544 players. The tournament was only $225 and we got $15k in tournament chips to start, which for such a low buy-in is a lot of chips! First prize was over $22k, so I had my eyes on that! The only thing that was kind of strange to me is that there were no antes until we reached 600/1200 blinds. I love playing with antes, so I could have used them a little earlier than that!!!

Everything was pretty good and I was cruising through each level accumulating chips. I had about 45k in chips by level 7 which was about twice the average when everything started going wrong!!! The guy sitting in seat 9 started going on a rush and became my nemesis. Every time I tried to bluff, he re-raised me, every-time I had a good hand, he had a better one! So it goes without saying that I was chipping down fairly quickly. I ended up short stacked and went all in with QQ and he called me with nothing less than KK. That whole level was a fiasco for me! Ugggggh!

Later on I went to cheer Sam Bensinger's final table where he took 4th at the Venetian for $14k! After that we went to the Rio to watch Michael Mizrachi play heads up in the 50K HORSE and take it down for $1.5 million! That was such a great moment!!! His whole family was there and lots of his friends. The place was filled with great vibes towards him.

---Some other exciting news is that my PETA interview is up on their website!
Here is the web address to it: http://blog.peta.org/archives/2010/06/annie_lepage.php
I hope you enjoy!!!

I am planning on playing mainly satellites the rest of the week. My 1st event should be the $1k this weekend. Although I might wait until Monday and play the 6 handed NL as it is a better game for my style of play and it's my game of choice when playing online. I am also playing the Ladies event next Friday and probably a Venetian Deep Stack tournament somewhere in between.

I will keep you all updated. I'm ready for my 1st WSOP bracelet!