I got two tickets to the big boxing match last Saturday night at Mandalay Bay. Bernard Hopkins vs Winky Right. I enjoy UFC fighting a lot more than boxing, but first row seats to any fight makes it worth your while. Mikko and I drove to the Bellagio and put a nice size bet on Wright.
Mikko was so confident that Wright was going to win that he took 10 per cent of my action. We hopped in a limo and headed over to Mandalay Bay. Lately lady luck has not been on my side, and she’d deserted me that night too: Hopkins took the win.
The night before the fight Maya and I celebrated good friend Roland de Wolfe's Birthday at the Wynn. Roland and I have been friends for a long time. We met a few years ago on the European Poker circuit. Roland is one of the funniest and most entertaining people I have ever met.
Normally I am not a huge Chinese food fan, but Wing Lei at the Wynn was very good – I strongly recommend it. Also joining us at dinner was Jeff Madsen, Theo Taan, Mikko, Nick and his girlfriend, and Jason from Full Tilt and his girlfriend.
It was a lot of fun and Roland was the life of the party as usual. At the end of dinner all of us made a $100 bet who could guess the total bill. My tennis trainer Nick, the prop bet king, was only a few dollars off the total of $1,333. Nothing like getting paid $600 for eating at the Wynn.
Last night Nick and I went to play some tennis around 9pm at the park. Both courts were busy, so of course we managed to find a wall and start making bets on who could hit closest to sign on the wall. Nick has taken Mikko for almost every penny he has by hitting stop signs or light poles from 20-50 yards away yet I still agreed to play him $100 a shot.
Being the nice guy he is he offered to give me two shots for every one shot of his. Thankfully the courts opened up and I was only down $200. As soon as we started to hit, it started raining. We decided to just enjoy the cool weather and keep playing. It was really fun sliding on the slippery court; it reminded me of the clay courts back home in Finland. My back was very stiff so we just rallied and worked on my forehand.
I’ve made a weight loss bet with Nick. I’ve bet that he can not lose 15 pounds in four months. It does not sound so hard until you see his eating habits – it’s amazing how good he plays tennis with the food he eats.
He is so motivated to win that he gave me a $1,000 freeroll if I see him drinking a soda. Who doesn't love a free roll? I just restocked my refrigerator with every single soda Vons carries, so he is tempted on a daily basis. My refrigerator is more than ready for an episode of Cribs.
I am enjoying a little break from poker before I head to Europe for a long stretch of tournaments and high stakes cash games. I will post more poker-related stories soon. It’s so hard nowadays to get away from poker for more than a few days, because it is so easy to play online.
I will start up again soon and will post interesting hands from my sessions in this blog. I have not been this excited for tournament poker in a long time; I plan on making it a very successful trip.
Hope your enjoying the website and blog, now get back to the tables and good luck.
Patrik
