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//June 21, 2006
Hey fellow poker junkies. How are they running for you? I hope well. Just flew back from our annual WPT event in Paris in which I hosted. I spent some time in Rome first, 3 days, jogged around the beautiful city just soaking in the ancient sites with my wife. Then onto Paris to commentate the final table where the winner took home close to 1 million dollars. The Aviation Club de France is where we played the event. A very exclusive and elegant club right on the Champs-Elysees– the kind of place you’d imagine James Bond playing high stakes chemin de faire.
The event went well. The European poker boom is going through the roof. Poker is a national phenomenon there. New faces becoming famous everyday and you would not believe how many online players are striking it rich going from online poker to casino poker. It’s just amazing. Anyway, I never played any of the juicy side games – a little pact I had with my wife: When in Paris, keep it romantic. Of course some people might say that sucking out on the river with a pair of ladies could be very romantic. (Did I just say that?)
Nevertheless, maybe my poker abstaining in Paris will pay off with double home-games in LA this week. It could happen. Nothing wrong with calculating the pot-odds. By the way, I stayed at a great hotel where 2 apple ciders from room service cost me $35. I’m not kidding. Guess who walked 6 blocks in the rain to the local grocery store stocking up on all kinds of bottled waters for a buck a piece after that? That’s right, moi. You guessed it. Talk about a house rake.
Another subject: Though I didn’t play poker in Paris, I still had action because my co-host and new host and nouveau riche pigeon friend Mike Sexton was there again to fleece. As reported in my last blog, I bet Nadal over Federer at the French Open in tennis. I gave 8 to 5 odds. Would you believe it I cashed in. Now get this: We’ve already set our Wimbledon odds between us. This time, I’ve got Feder and he’s got Nadal. I gave him 18 to 10. I also made a crazy side bet on Agassi to win at 20 to 1 odds. I like my side, but it should be interesting.
Well, no more WPT events for me for a couple of months. I’m on a little hiatus from that. But there is a little thing called the World Series of Poker which I’ll be sharpening myself up for. I’m going to play about 4 of the no-limit hold’em events and of course, the big one. They’re estimating 8,000 players this year. Our very own Hollywood Poker Team will be there. We’re going to have a huge Hollywood Poker display at the Poker Bowl Room at the entrance of the tournament at Harrahas. If you’re in town, be sure to come by and visit our Hollywood Poker Girls, James Woods and I. We’ll be spending a lot of time hanging out there discussing poker ticks.
Until next time, play loose and stay out of my pots.
~ Vince Van Patten
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