Saturday, the 21st was a day reserved for poker. I called CarmenSinCity the night before and asked her if she would meet me at The Orleans for the LIPS (Ladies International Poker Series) HOE tournament. She agreed.

We met at 9:30 a.m., paid our entry fee into the tournament, picked up our food voucher and headed for the coffee shop. It was the first time that I had managed to spend any real time visiting with Carmen although I’d seen her at the WSOP numerous times and she is a writer at PokerWorks. It was kick back, graze, and chat. Nice!

Why, oh why do tournaments have to start at such ungodly hours? This one started at 11a.m. – probably because the Orleans was trying to clear us out ASAP.

I don’t have the facts and figures on how many players were there, nor do I have any idea who won the tournament. I do know that the winner of this event was going to receive a seat into the following day’s LIPS NLH tournament. I do know that I had a great time playing with a few women I knew and some I didn’t.

They started us off with a horrible structure and $1,000 in chips, we could re-buy and pick up another $1,000 (at any time prior to the cut-off), but the structure was $25-50LH, $50-100 Omaha8, and $10 ante, bring in $30, complete to $50, limit $50-$100…all of this in the first hour. KEE-RIST! That leaves no play in the game. We got through the Holdem, into the Omaha 8, and with a lot of complaining and noise from some of the savvy players, the TD started rethinking the structure. Billie (a long time Vegas player), at my table suggested they give us an extra $1000 in chips to compensate for the lousy blind structure. They did. They also left the LH and O8 blinds the same during the hour. And they changed the O8 blind level to match the LH blind level, it helped put play back in the game.

Carmen and a poker table opponent holding the LIPS Tournament sign:

I pretty much sat card dead and didn’t get involved in too many hands. I picked up K-K once and the only action I got was a player going all-in preflop (it’s probably better that way) and I won that hand. I backed into a full house in the 7 Stud 8B after starting with a low draw against two high hands. It was a huge pot and I got paid on the river by both players. That was the only real hand I won. Carmen was out after the first few hours but to her credit, she had never played the 8 or better games.

Here are a few random pictures of the scene:

Tables broke down and as we lost players from our table, new ones filtered in, one of our replacements was Maria Stern – she’s a WSOP bracelet winner.

Another replacement was a little cutie that took the 3s, right next to me. I kept looking at her profile as we played and knowing that I knew her…but from where? Several of the players that started the table with me kept talking about different aspects of my poker career and the subject of the Howard Lederer videos came up. Suddenly the 2s turned to me, “Linda?”

Yes, we knew each other. She is one of the people I found to help film the 2nd video. She told the table that I was responsible for getting her interested in poker. Hello Mylene!

Our gracious poker playing LIPS hostess, Lupe:

Just before tournament time, Lupe was introduced by the TD and as she spoke to us and acknowledged some of the super stars in our midst, one of the people she mentioned was Susie Isaacs. I was a bit startled when Susie waltzed up and grabbed the microphone from Lupe and started touting her new book. Susie even said that Lupe didn’t expect her to take the mic…well go figure!!! But here she is, new book and all:

I forgot how seriously exhausting playing poker for seven to eight hours really is, and I was dragging ass by the time we got close to dinner break. Lupe had been out for a long time but she was still in and out. She came by our table once and said, “I’m working so hard for all of you to have a great time…”

I replied, “Yes, and we’re just sitting back, playing poker like a bunch of lazy HOES.” *lots of laughter*

I made the dinner break, very short chips as all I’d done is blind and ante for the last few hours. Returning to the table, I knew that I had about one orbit left, the antes were $100, the blinds were $300-600 and I was cooked. I threw away A-2 off in my big blind for a raise. As it went, I would have won the hand but I would have been up against K-K. My small blind was given up also. On the button, I looked down to 7-7. Someone raised in front of me, to $1,200. I had $900 left and went all-in. The Flop was 9-3-5. The BB checked, the raiser bet, the BB folded. We turned up our hands. I was up against A-2 suited (no suits on board). The raiser exclaimed, “I need a four!”

BINGO! Right on the turn, just like calling its name brought it home. I had a redraw, needing a six but it didn’t come. I said goodnight and hit the hot desert night around 8 p.m. Whew! Stick a fork in me. I really was exhausted.