Speaking of Thrillist … my other, non-poker gig … one thing we’ve learned over there is that Thrillist readers care way more about night clubs, booze, restaurants, race cars, and tiddy bars than they ever do about poker.

So I was a little surprised to get the numbers back from last week’s edition, where an item about Phil Hellmuth’s new website for his clothing line was the highest performer. Really? Yep … A decidedly non-pokery readership found the PokerBrat’s T-shirts and Pep Pills more intriguing than an MGM bar, a new gambling-themed wine, casino decor, and a corner of P-Ho where blackjack dealers wear lingerie:

From Thrillist:

Wear: PokerBrat Clothing
These surprisingly subtle tees come from the John McEnroe of poker, 11-time WSOP champ Phil Hellmuth, with highlights including “Poker Tree” (”grow that chip pile from a toothpick to a lumberyard”), and “Poker Skater”, harkening back to his U of Wisconsin transpo from barroom games back to his dorm. Less tastefully, Hellmuth also hawks books, DVDs, and “Go Heads-Up” energy pills, guaranteed to keep you at the table long enough to lose your subtle tee.
Check out shirts and more at PokerBrat.com

They really are some pretty cool shirts. But perhaps the scary thing is clicking through the site, where Hellmuth tries his hand at pokery grocery-store romance. Click below to read about a poker-bratty encounter with the woman who would later become his wife:

More…

There are 50 poker rooms in Las Vegas, so we thought you might appreciate the assistance of fellow degenerates in narrowing down the possibilities of where to play when you come to town. The votes have been tallied … and four places stood out above the rest … In what may or may not become a recurring tradition around these parts, Pokeratizens say the Best Poker Rooms in Vegas are:

Gold Medal
The Venetian

Great regular tourneys, Deep Stack Extravaganzas, plenty of all-but-the-highest-stakes action, bottled Fiji water, and maybe the escalator that dumps off drunkenly clad party girls coming out of Tao right in front of The V’s poker room make it far and away the favorite of this website’s readers/players/dealers.

official site / TPA

The separate tournament room really is cool, if not the best in town, and the comfortable multi-tiered cash game area never seems short of action appealing to the masses of big little-stakes players. Great freerolls for regular cash players, too.

official site / TPA

Still home to the biggest games in Vegas (in terms of buy-ins), thereby drawing the most pros and the players who want to challenge/sit near them. Everything Bellagio is always luxe, of course, and their regular $500 and $1k tourneys makes the chance to play for baller money an in-town constant.

official site / TPA

More…

LAS VEGAS–Three weeks or so ago, I found myself going bust in a $2/$5 NL game at the WSOP, and it all hinged on a single hand. I had called a small raise with 8-9s and the flop came 9-9-10. As the hand progressed, I began duking it out with the big stack at the table … and ultimately, even after putting more than $250 in the pot, I woulda/coulda/shoulda been able to get away — thereby saving $320 in my stack. (And leaving me $20 up for the session.) I did not do that, however, and sure enough … he had flopped a boat with 9-10s. Of course he did.

A “very good” player knows how to flop trips and get away from them.

More…

LAS VEGAS–Playing good poker is so friggin’ hard. This time the subject of my ire was a totally affable a-hole who happened to be the big stacks. I was playing so well today. And that meant laying down big hands, effectively value-betting others. For all the good cards I was getting, action was hard to come by, because there were so many other small stacks on the table, and the big stack was obviously good enough to recognize my abilities and steer clear of them. Plus he was distracted by all the Vegas hotties walking by our table en route to one of the MGM’s clubs, and he didn’t want to miss an opportunity to catcall.

So I was patient and patient, and said little as he kept making “-ish” jokes every other hand. (Dude, as if that wasn’t so my schtick in 2005ish.) Then, with a stack of about $360 (on a single buy-in of $200), I finally got my opportunity. The big stack had just gotten significantly bigger a few hands earlier and was playing looser and trying to push people around. I had pocket kings in early position in a straddled pot. The big-stack had straddled, then his buddy min-raised his straddle, and the guy to my right called. I bumped it to $25 … with a certain bravado that screamed “strong means weak!” Five callers, which was fine by me … though I woulda liked a re-raise there, I now faced some pretty easy decisions based on the texture of the flop.

6-4-3 rainbow.

I liked.

More…

LAS VEGAS–So after starting off my trip pretty well, I hit the skids big-time. I also finally tried my hand at blackjack. (Not good.) So to prevent myself from spending six weeks out at the WSOP working for “free,” I did what a handful of down-on-their-luck pros have to do … dropped my stakes and reverted to straight-forward poker.

Even at the MGM’s $1/$2 NL it wasn’t looking good. Lost a chunk of my first stack when double scare cards came on the turn and river. I’m pretty sure the dude had nothing, but I couldn’t call. (I had flopped top pair with QJs, and two aces came. My opponent was Asian.) Then a couple hands later, I went bust with pocket queens … I was way ahead when the money went in, but way behind on the turn, and even more behind by the river.

But it was interesting … because playing “lower” stakes made that sort of happenstance far less bothersome. I simply rebought, and played my game. Or I should say Gonz’s game, because I actually folded trouble hands pre-flop. My second (and pre-decided last) buy-in got down to like $55 … but at $1/$2, I was able to wait and wait until I found pocket kings. From there, the poker was easy.

Buy-in(s): $360 (2)
Cash out: $655
Net: +$295

Highlight: realizing that I was clearly better than half the table, at least two of whom had no clue how much dead money they really were. “We’re just trading chips back and forth really … hey, you got a lot of them now … hey, where you going?”