PROP [blog] | Poker Clothing | A Degenerate Lifestyle Brand

The 2008 World Series of Poker can be summed up with one word:

Downtick.

It was an expensive few weeks, with very few highs for the PROP team.  I’ve seen a bunch of blogs already go into detail about their bad beats and monkey punches.  So, blah blah blah, ditto.  On a positive note: one team member had a decent cash game series winning 5 figures.

We played a bunch of Venetian Deep Stack events with 3/8 shallow cashes for minimum wage paydays.  These tournies are the greatest thing ever invented and I am going to try and play every event next year.  Start with 12k chips @ 25/50 w/40min levels, and monkeys abound with buyins ranging from $330 to $5k and first places upwards from $40k.  Screw the $1500 bracelet events…3k chips…bah humbug.

The team spent most of our time @ the Wynn.  Highly recommend Okada for tepanyaki (sp?).  It’s like Benihana only better (bout $120/ea).  Also ate at Wing Lei, really good chinese food, but pricey (paying for convenience and great service).  SW – good times for steak, but service can be streaky.  One time we were there they got the filet temperatures all mixed up at the table…still a cool restaurant.  Tryst – cool, as long as you don’t have to wait in line.  So either know someone, pay a ‘host’ some cash, get there early, or eat at Okada b4 hand.  Table service is recommended but if you’re a dance dance revolutionary, probably not necessary.  European Pool is chill, gets a little crowded and greasy watered on weekends.  Terrace Point Cafe – good for breakfast/lunch b4 poolside or late night after clubs/poker.

Rio: Gaming Expo – dumb.  If you weren’t there, you didn’t miss anything imho.  Same stuff as previous years, except a few less booths, and a little less money being spent on the show.  Poker recession in full effect there.  Harrah’s did do an excellent re-design on the floorplan.  The satellite room being separate was great.  The color coded stuff made things easier to find.  Better, albeit not great, food.  Overall improvement.  Looking forward to seeing how the final table delay works out…

Bracelet Highlights: Can’t wait to watch the 50k horse on TV.  Scotty Nguyen, Lindgren, and DeMichelle will be really fun to see the cards in play and hear the table chatter.  Phil Ivey lost all his bracelet bets, bought out of most early it appears.  He’s still the man – and if rumors are true – the Full Tilt Gravy train is producing enough monthly scrilla that even a degen like him can’t gamble it all away.  Negreanu got a bracelet in a 2k limit holdem event – another good tv event, as he has one of the best on camera personalities in the biz.  Lindgren also got his monkey off the back and had a monster series, bringing his wsop cashes to almost $7M lifetime.

Notable Prop bet recap:  Biggest bets obviously belong to Mr. Ivey giving 1.8 to 2.2 to 1 to many said to have exceeded 2.2M and 200k on individual bracelet bets with a few.  Matusow wins 100k from Forrest for losing 50lbs, then goes on to win a bracelet and have a few other nice cashes.  Fitness apparently pays. Bball…Anyone else lose money on the Lakers?  Still nothing tops Lindgren’s 200k bet from last year – walk 4 rounds of golf in Summerlin, and break 100 in all four rounds…in 110′ heat. Brutal.