Diary of a Poker Diva - Liz Lieu

I am writing this blog from my sick bed! Yes, I caught the stomach flu that’s kicking my butt harder than anything I watched at UFC 91 this weekend!!

For starters, my weekend started off grand. My friend Jewels flew into Vegas for one day. She is a close dear friend of mine from Israel and it’s been 2 years since I’ve seen her last. Unfortunately she is travelling for business and was only able to stop by Vegas for one day. Jewels and I headed to the Wynn to eat at the very upscale Alex Restaurant. It is absolutely superb if you have never been there. We caught up on each others lives and shared some girl gossip. Love you Jewels! xoxo

The very next day I had another visit from another good friend, Eddie Ting. Eddie flew in with six of his friends. A few of them were staying at the Luxury Villas at the Bellagio. The Villas are 6500 Square-foot estates. It was my second time going to the Bellagio Villas. It is simply amazing. The Villa has its own private pool and Jacuzzi. It comes with 24 hour Butler service and the guests get treated like Royalty. The Suites are only available by invitation only.

If you haven’t received your invitation to stay at the Villa don’t worry, I am still waiting for my invitation too!! But at $10,000 per night I think I would possibly pass even if I was invited.

At the last minute my friend Eddie sends me a text asking me to go with him to UFC 91 Event at the MGM. I don’t know how he got his tickets at the last second but when you are staying at the Villas I don’t think getting tickets to any event is a problem. Our seats were pretty amazing. (Thanks Alan!)

A few of my friends were surprised I wanted to watch the UFC when I told them about it. Little did they know huh? I guess I’ve been around guys too much all of my life! That’s what happens when you are a female poker player. To most people’s surprise, this wasn’t my first fight. I’ve been to several other fights in the past and I really enjoyed it.

It’s never any fun going to any of these fighting events without placing any bets right? So Eddie and myself placed a couple prop bets on some of the matches. Result ending with Liz +2 Eddie -2. LOL! 

The Randy Couture vs. Brock Lesnar fight really lived up to the billing. Randy was the Heavyweight champion and UFC legend. Brock was probably the freakiest person I’ve ever seen in my life. He looked like the real life embodiment of the Hulk!! Despite the size difference most people seemed pretty confident about Randy’s chances. Because of his experience and history of beating all of the top guys in the UFC. The crowd was really behind Randy Couture but Brock Lesnar was too much.

And then comes this final ending, with Couture on the ground getting pounded on the head full strength -non-stop! It’s over! Sigh… Lets just say with Brock Lesnar winning the fight.. A large sum of money went down the drain.. WT*!

Afterwards, the 4 of us who attended the fight together - Eddie, Nick, Lisa, and myself, headed back to the Bellagio and ate a sushi feast before meeting up with Eddie’s friends Liberty and her husband, who also joined us at the Bank where a table was waiting for us. I finished out my night at The Bank and midway through I started to feel a stomach ache coming on. Ever since then I’ve pretty much been feeling like a dead fish the last couple days. I’m sure it was the sushi I ate! Argh!! I would love to be playing some online poker right now but it’s never a good idea to play poker when you are feeling sick.

I’d like to send my Congrats to Eddie and his beautiful wife on having an adorable healthy new born son Tyler Ting. (And Eddie if your reading this, you can ask me a thousand more times who your son looks like and you’ll still get the same answer, your wife! :P)

The last two days have been miserable but I am starting to feel better now. My next journal entry will probably be from Canada. I fly into Vancouver on Wednesday and plan to play some poker with our friendly neighbors in the North. Until then.

Cheers!

Monday morning, I jumped into my Benz and started driving to Los Angeles to visit my Chilipoker Sponsor, Alexandre Dreyfus. I was supposed to meet him at 5am. Don’t ask. Something to do with Alex trying to stay on European time. He tries to sleep at the same time he would if he was in France.

I didn’t leave Vegas until 2:30am. I was struggling to leave at all. Alex has been so supportive of me and has been the absolutely best Sponsor anyone could ask for so there was no way I wasn’t going to drive to L.A. but I was soooo tired!! I arrived in L.A. around 6:30 in the morning and I decided to spend the rest of the week there. Alex and I had some good meetings on Monday and discussed some upcoming projects and pending business.

After joining Alex for breakfast, we decided that I take him on a sightseeing tour. We headed to Beverly Hills and Alex wanted to check out some of the homes in that area. There’s a slight chance he might move to Los Angeles someday, since he loves the weather so much. And then I took him to my favorite spot in L.A. That’s right! Rodeo Drive.

The rest of the time I just played poker online. I am not running well online!! I am actually playing quite well. I played heads up mostly. I ended up down 13k before I called it quits for the week. It was an up and down session. On Thursday I went heads up against a very loose and aggressive player and he hit so many times on the river. I wanted to puke. I would check raise and raise him on the flop and turn. Of course he had air everytime but this didn’t stop him from chasing me down and hitting every over card or draw on the river. It was pretty sick. Oh well, that’s poker right?

Here’s a funny story. It is Friday and I just returned from L.A. I am in Vegas now writing this blog from home and it took me 6 ½ hours to get here. The traffic in LA is an absolute nightmare. I called a friend and they asked me why I was driving back to Vegas on a Friday. That is the worst day to drive. I thought it was Thursday!!

Okay. I think I am going to book my trip to the British Columbia Poker Championships in Vancouver, B.C. next week. I hear it’s a great event at a great venue. I haven’t played this event before but I am looking forward too it.

The event will be held at the River Rock Casino Resort. Rumor is the first prize of the Main Event will be around one million U.S. dollars. I fly out Wednesday. I will report back from Canada and let you know how it goes. Cheers!

Picking right back up from where I left off. I made the short drive to the Bellagio to meet up with my friends to go to The Bank. When I arrived I ran into Eric Morris, Owner of Bluff Magazine and Justin Bonomo. I have never met Justin until then. They were waiting on Lacey and Christina.

I decided to book my own table separately on the dance floor since I had out of town guests and decided to invite a couple of girlfriends. It turns out our tables were very close. Jeff Madsen, Nenad Medic, Brandon Cantu, Tiffany Michelle, Maria Ho, Justin Bonomo and Rick Fuller were just a few among many other poker players that decided to come out for the Bluff Party.

We settled in around 11pm and ordered three bottles of Vodka. I don’t drink at all, typically, but I did have half a shot with Nenad towards the end of the night. It was one of those type of nights. Everyone seemed to be in good spirits. The WSOP Main Event was just a day away and I decided to celebrate the occasion.

Most of the night everyone bounced back and forth between the different tables. I also ran into the entire Asian Dragon APT Crew, Quinn Do, Nam Le, JC Tran, Steve Sung, as well as Martin Elliott and Tom Hall of the Asian Poker Tour. They had a few tables as well Saturday night. I am a big supporter of the APT and I plan to play in several events.

Sunday was really uneventful. It was a complete recovery day from the two nights before. A chance to catch up on errands. Check emails. I pretty much stayed in my home the whole day and ordered Mexican take out to be delivered to my place.

Now it’s Monday and I just returned from taking my mercedes into the dealership for some routine maintenance and oil check. I plan on driving to Los Angeles tonight. My Chilipoker Sponsor, Alexandre Dreyfus, is in Los Angeles for a few days. I want to catch up on some work with him while he’s in town.

Most of our correspondence in the past month has been over Skype or phone so this is a good chance to meet up with Alex because we are both travelling so much and he is always busy with work. Alex is truly one of the most intelligent business people I know and has a great sense of humor. I look forward to seeing him again.

And I promise you some poker blogs are coming soon!!

Cheers!

It’s Saturday evening and I thought I would post a quick blog before getting ready attend the Bluff Party tonight at The Bank in the Bellagio. I will be joined by some of my good friends.

For the past two days, I have been entertaining a couple friends from out of town and handling some poker business. Many people are in town this weekend for the WSOP Main Event. I will be at The RIO on Sunday to meet up with Matt Waldon to do an interview for Lifes A Bluff and possibly Flush Magazine. While I’m there I’m also gonna swing by the final table to root for David “Chino” Rheem.

Many young players can be cocky and obnoxious but Chino has never been like that. Chino has always been respectful. Chino might still be young but he is a grinder who worked his way up from the cash games and always worked hard to improve. It’s no fluke Chino is at the Final Table and I wish him the best of luck.

I am not all work and NO fun however. I did go out last night for a bit to Lavo, the new club at the Palazzo last night. I met a couple of my friends out there and we had a good evening. If you haven’t been to the Palazzo it has a similar vibe as TAO Night Club but much smaller and more intimate. Right when you walk in there is a main bar area that feels more like a cocktail lounge and the upstairs is a dance floor.

I had friend’s texting me to come to Prive and the Hard Rock as well. Unfortunately by the time I received those texts it was getting pretty late. I grabbed a few late night snacks with my friends before we decided to call it a night. Tonight should be a much more adventurous night. Last night all of my friends were spread all over the place.

Some were saving there energy for the Hoyt Corkins Charity event today. Others were at Prive or the Hard Rock or just staying low key. Most of the friends I’ve talked to are all coming out tonight so this should be a really fun evening.

It is time to go get ready. I am going to grab dinner somewhere. Not sure where yet!! I need to get ready first however. If you happen to come across this blog and see me at The Bank tonight, say Hi. Until the next blog, arrivederci.

Hump Day!! How do you blog about Monday and Tuesday? Seriously, does anything interesting ever happen on a Monday or Tuesday? Normally that is true but this Tuesday turned out to be a pretty interesting day. Once every four years on Election Tuesday, the American people get to elect a President.

I was glued to CNN most of yesterday like the rest of the Country. I don’t want to get too political because I’m not a very political person but the reaction to Obama being elected was pretty electrifying. I also want to give some respect to John McCain who conceded very graciously as he acknowledged an Obama victory. McCain’s concession was very classy!!

And what can you say about Obama?! His speaking ability and charisma remind me of a modern day John F. Kennedy. Much of Obama’s success can be attributed to the way he motivated younger generations to vote and motivated those who previously felt disenfranchised with the political process to vote. I know many Republicans are upset today but around the globe and around this nation, many people are celebrating Obama’s brand of hope and change. The election is over and what is done is done!! Let’s all move forward.

                                      (photo courtesy unknown)

On the topic of poker and politics, rumors suggest Obama is a pretty decent poker player himself and maybe he will be an advocate for poker unlike his predecessor George W. Bush. Obama has expressed an interest in regulating online poker and gambling. Doyle Brunson, a lifelong Republican, supported Obama down the stretch because the Republicans support the current ban on internet gaming. In 2009, the Democrats will have control of the House, the Senate and the Presidency. While online gaming is probably pretty far down on the priority list, there is a beam of hope for poker players. Crossing fingers!

On a more cheerful note! I watched Step Up 2 the Streets and 21 the last two days. Ha-ha. I should be ashamed of myself!! I thought Step Up 2 the Streets was kind of cute. Some of those dance moves and choreography were crazy! And 21 was entertaining. I will have to ask Andy Bloch about that someday. I know he was involved somehow with the MIT team. I will get some good stories out of him perhaps. Maybe I will post them on here for you guys.

I for one, stay away from the pits games!! That’s actually one of the dark secrets about the world of poker. How many of the players are truly gamblers!! Many of them cannot stay away from the pits. Craps, blackjack and baccarat. Or prop betting. So many times I’ve been at the Bellagio or somewhere else and noticed poker players gambling away there winnings. Some of my good friends will gamble on anything!! Usually it’s funny but the amounts they wager are sick amounts. Truly sick!!

Looking forward to this weekend by the way. I have a few parties to attend and lots of Poker Industry people are coming into town for the weekend. The Main Event of the WSOP will be played out on Sunday. I will keep everyone posted on anything interesting that happens over the weekend. Until then, Au Revoir!!

I split my Halloween weekend between Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Yes. I started in Sin City and moved the party to the City of Angels! For starters, I partied at TAO nightclub on Friday night with some of my girlfriends.

The girls and I arrived at TAO around 11pm and proceeded to our table near the dance floor. I spotted some of my poker player friends as we arrived. Steve Sung, Nenad Medic and couple others had a table on the dance floor. I spent half of my night bouncing back and forth between the guys and girls. Lately, I’ve been spotting my poker player friends and acquaintances more off the felt than on the felt! I guess that is a sign I need to go play more.

The atmosphere at TAO was very festive. Everyone had on such great costumes. Lacey was a dead ringer for Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction. Of course the club was packed and everyone had on such great costumes. What an interesting night! After a few hours I had my fill of fun and entertainment and decided to head home and rest up for my trip to Los Angeles the following day.

I almost didn’t make it to LA!! I turned on my computer to get some work done and the day just flew by. I had to text Shannon Elizabeth that evening and let her know I might be a little late to her party! Shannon texted me back and let me know it was never too late!! I ended up on the last flight out of Los Angeles and asked Maria Ho to pick me up since she lives in L.A. The two of us headed over to Shannon’s party and as expected, the party was packed. Everyone was still in the Halloween spirit. Most everyone was dressed in Halloween costumes.

When I arrived at the party, my girl Shannon came right over to say Hi and gave me a BIG hug. She looked great in her witch costume and was also a terrific hostess. Her party was a huge success and I look forward to coming back for more. I didn’t know that many people at the party but it was a good opportunity to get to know Maria a little better. Up until a few weeks ago I didn’t really know Maria at all. Most people might be familiar with Maria because she was the last woman player standing at the 2007 WSOP Main Event. Maria’s a real sweetheart, I’m glad I got to know her better.

Now it’s back to Las Vegas again. I have a very close friend visiting from out of town on Thursday and the Bluff Party at The Bank over the weekend.

Happy Halloween everybody!

Friday Night!! Just so you know, this is going to be short. It is Halloween weekend in Vegas and one of the most interesting and busiest weekends of the year for the Clubs. Big plans with the girls! Me, Lisa, Lacey and Galina are meeting up and heading over to TAO. I’ve received several text messages from friends throughout the day asking me to swing by TAO to party tonight.

Just to give you a quick update, the rest of the week has been pretty mellow. I stayed at home most of this week. Since my last journal entry, I’ve been busy doing interviews, working on my different blogs and working on a poker article. I did get out one day and went to watch a movie then played some Bingo afterwards at the Hard Rock with some girlfriends. That was a blast!! I love Bingo. Not many people know this about me but I can play that game all day long.

My computer is so hot at the moment, it might explode!! The computer has been on all day and I think it’s about to overheat! I do want to send a special announcement to my Niece and Nephew who both turned 14 yesterday. They are twins. I am extremely lucky to have them in my life. Every year I call them to wish them a Happy Birthday and ask them what they want. This year, they hardly asked for anything at all. My niece in particular specifically requested that the gift be under $40. I told her she could get anything she wanted and I could afford to spend more but she told me she already had, “The greatest aunt in the world for my present.” I was so touched by her sincerity and couldn’t hold back my tears after hearing that. She has no greed or selfishness in her.

Well I’m off to go party with my girlfriends tonight in LV and tomorrow I fly to Los Angeles to attend Shannon Elizabeth’s Scavenger Hunt party she is hosting. That should be a lot of fun. I am looking forward to hanging out with my good friend Shannon and than I am back to Las Vegas in a couple days. I hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween weekend. I will update my blog and hope to have lots of interesting stories to tell you guys from my weekend adventures.

I spent the last two days just chilling at home, recuperating from the long weekend of partying with my friends. Play time’s over, now its back to business again.

I’ve got a couple of shout outs that I would like to share with everyone, it’s all good! Just around the corner in November, CardPlayer Bulgaria’s third issue is expected to hit news stands and casinos and I’m delighted to be gracing the cover of their November issue. So my poker friends and fans in Bulgaria, keep an eye out for it. A big thanks and best wishes to you all!

12-05-2008 - A documentary film entitled “IN THE RED ZONE”
Director Jean-Marie NIZAN along with LABEL-IMAGE a TV production company based in Paris, France will be traveling to Las Vegas to conduct an exclusive interview with me to talk with them about my passion with cards and the relationships between Cinema and Poker.

About the Film
A documentary with Mickey Rourke, Nascar driver + poker players Liz Lieu and a couple others.

The film focuses on 3 domains where characters gamble with their lives on-screen: the boxer in the ring, the player at the card table, and the driver on the asphalt track.

Red like the boxer’s blood. Red like the ace of diamonds. Red like the rev counter’s danger zone.

Three territories, three locations, three sets of rules to define three genres. Working from these archetypes, the directors bring their talent into play, using and purposely transgressing conventional practices.

In his look back at boxing, gambling and automobiles, the documentary’s director Jean-Marie NIZAN reviews some of the greatest moments in cinema over the last forty years: The Cincinnati Kid, Raging Bull, The Sting, Grand-Prix, Rocky, Bobby Deerfield, Casino, Million Dollar Baby, to name just a few …

Wanting to “cross” interviews of cinema people (directors and actors) who already have approach the genre and poker players, car racers and boxers.

Combining three different sports, all having one thing in common - Lives constantly living on the edge! Definitely very interesting and I’m pleased to have been approached and asked to participate in this film!

Cheers!

I’m Changing…

My blog to make it more personal. Here I will share with everyone my everyday life, new adventures, random thoughts and feelings. I hope you all will enjoy as I take you along with me on my journey through life. I will try and treat this new blog more like a journal. Making several entries throughout the week. I will keep you posted on the latest and greatest.

Welcome to the Diary of a Poker Diva! Why the change? Because I’ve changed as a person in this past year. So much has happened in my life in 2008, having to encounter some very painful experiences off the felt. In many ways this has been a transforming year for me. A year of growth despite the many personal setbacks. I wanted to share those experiences on a more intimate level with my family, fans, and friends who stuck with me through thick and thin. I hope you enjoy this new format and provide feedback.

10-26-08

Well this is a great starting point for this new blog. It was a very interesting weekend. I was able to get out of my condo in Las Vegas and hang out with so many of my close friends. On Friday, I met up with some good friends for dinner. My girlfriend Lacey Jones called me and told me we were having dinner with Michael Phelps at Simons restaurant at The Palms. Yes, that Michael Phelps. He is in town for the Festa Al Lago Classic (WPT) at the Bellagio. I arrived late but my friends Lacey Jones, Maria Ho, and Jeff Madsen were already there to greet me along with Michael and one of his poker friends Scott Freeman. After meeting Michael I thought he was a cool guy, very laid back and down to earth.

After dinner, we all hopped in a limo and headed over to TAO Night Club where Michael had a table on the dance floor under the catwalk. The MC made an announcement that Michael Phelps was in the house at the beginning of the night and everyone applauded. So many other poker players showed up as well including David Williams, Phil Laak, Phil Hellmuth, Roland De Wolfe, and Antonio Esfandiari, to name just a few. It turned out to be a really fun night and since I haven’t gone out to the clubs much at all in 2008, it was a good change of pace for me and everyone was having so much fun.

I had so much fun on Friday I thought I would roll the dice on Saturday too. I met up with Lacey and Maria again. Our plan was to go to the Cathouse at the Luxor but when we arrived, we were waiting around for a few people that we agreed to meet. I’m not a very patient person, hehe, so after awhile I decided lets do something else. Turns out a bunch of poker players had a table at the Bank. So, we decided to go there. We turned around and lost Lacey. We had some other people in our group too so me and Maria decided to head to the Bank and we knew Lacey was safe. When we arrived at The Bank, the club was packed with poker pros partying like rockstars. We partied with them for awhile and eventually I got tired and went home.

All in all it was a pretty eventful weekend. I was glad I came out and I am really excited about what is coming down the road as well.

Cheers!

Has it really been two months since I posted here? Bad, bad Liz. I have to make this more of a habit. My posts at PokerListings work out pretty well, but I neglect my own site - not good at all!

A lot has happened in these last two months. I headed to Macau to play in the APT and APPT events there. I was hoping for a return to a Final Table or two but no luck. The APT was definitely the better run of the two events. They really took care of the poker players and made me feel special.

I headed to Hong Kong and had a great time with some of my friends as well as friends of Alex. Hong Kong is a real blast, and I hope I can get back there soon. I got a great new tattoo as well in Thailand. The artist used bamboo, which takes longer but I think is nicer. After my spiritual time in my homeland for my father’s ceremony, I wanted something really special. And it is.

For the last few weeks, I’ve been back in LA. And I’ve decided to spend more time back here in LA and Vegas. I just haven’t liked being so far away from friends and family, and I haven’t been a big fan of all the travel and hotels. I liked London, but I think ultimately I was just too alone there. Maybe I didn’t give it a good chance as I was hopping around all over Europe when I got there.

I’ve been spending time at the Commerce, and the cash games have been very juicy, real action games that play to my strength. Unfortunately, I’ve had a tough run last week. I’m proud of how I handled it, running away to Cabo with my girlfriends rather than getting caught up in the emotion of a big loss. All of the beautiful casinos of Las Vegas are built on that human emotion, the fear and frustration and anger of taking a big hit. I feel those same emotions, but I’ve built a thick skin that keeps me from tilting and lets me get through these sessions.

And what a great weekend it was with my girlfriends in Cabo. Cathleen, Jackie, and Tiffany have been my friends for so long. They are the ones who give me tough love through everything, through poker, through men, through tough family times. They are so close to me that they don’t fear speaking the truth as to what they see. They had planned on going with their families for awhile, and I wasn’t sure if I would make it or not. I’m very glad I did.

I spent lots of time sunning, just relaxing without thinking about too much. Saturday was a day of rough weather, so it was just a lot of lounging around plus a spa visit. I really feel rejuvenated after this trip, and I’m ready to hit the tables hard.

I’m going to be spending most of my time in cash games at Commerce when I’m in LA and at the Bellagio when I’m in Vegas. I’ll probably play the bigger tourneys, but I need to get back into grind mode for awhile.  I haven’t had the stamina to play the twenty and thirty-hour sessions, but I have felt better playing for ten or twelve hours at a time. I want to be sure I’m sharp and at my best, as I think the play has improved at the stakes I’m playing at.

I don’t want to promise that I’ll keep my blog up more here at LizLieu.net, but I promise it won’t be two months again until the next post. In fact, check back here as I hope to have a post up later this week from Vegas. Keep checking out my posts at PokerListings.com. Keep up the comments everywhere. I really love hearing from everyone.