LA Mike's Tale of the Tape

 Location:  Rio vs Bellagio

    * Hotel room, Quality of Food (restaurants and RS), Eye candy (errr hot chicks), night life, location and view. (Although I must admit the view I have out my window of the Gold Coast casino is quite stunning.)  Fontana Lounge vs Amazon Room.  Seems pretty simple...Advantage Bellagio Cup III.

Tournament Staff

    * Everyone is aware of the bitching about the way the WSOP events have been run.  The long playing hours and constant fuckups make it quite easy to complain.  At the Bellagio, it's Jack McClelland and his staff.  It's a Noon to 8pm playing schedule.  Rarely complaints from players.  Once again very simple...Advantage Bellagio Cup III.

Prestige of the Title/Notoriety

    * Nothing compares to the WSOP Main Event Championship.  Not only are we talking $8.25 million but also the endless marketing opportunities.  You truly become a poker celebrity overnight.  Bellagio Cup is just another WPT event...Advantage WSOP Main Event.

Prize Pool/Payout

    * WSOP main event, 6358 players at 10k a piece vs 535 players at 10k a pop.  If I'm going to be a gigantic luckbox and run like a God for one event, surely the WSOP main is that event.  $8.25m compared to only $1.34m...Advantage WSOP Main Event.

Television Coverage

    * This is pretty simple, the winner of the Main Event is going to be plastered all over ESPN.  This will be shown on ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN Classic.  It will be shown over and over, possibly more reruns than even Seinfeld.  The Bellagio Cup is only a 2-hour episode on GSN.  Honestly, the only program I know of on GSN is High Stakes Poker.  Clearly...Advantage WSOP Main Event.

Tournament Area

    * Number of miles to final table area from casino: Bellagio...50 miles, Rio...35 miles.
    * Final Table environment: Bellagio...simple, laid back, good set design, Rio...BEER and not just any beer Milwaukee's Best Light!  It's like a stadium atmosphere, complete with jumbotrons and the raucous crowd.  Bellagio's crowd is like a musical compared to the Rio which is more like watching AMERICA's Team with the national title!  Love America's Team for the record...Advantage WSOP Main Event.

Final Table Participants

    * Best recognized player: Mike Matusow vs Lee Watkinson... Advantage Bellagio Cup.
    * Bel0waB0ve and Shaniac vs Rain Khan for best internet legend...Advantage Bellagio Cup.

Internet Reporting

    * LA Mike vs Jeremiah, wow a battle for the ages.  LA Mike with his flashy style vs Jeremiah's hard core news reporting.  Jeremiah's no spin zone vs LA Mike's total spin zone.  Slight access advantage for LA Mike so...Advantage Push.

There you have it folks, when you break it down, it seems pretty simple.  It's all about the money for LA Mike...Advantage WSOP Main Event.

Until next time...

However, the last couple of years the location has been significantly different being here at the Rio for the WSOP.  July 4th in Vegas certainly isn't the same as Hermosa Beach so outside activities are curtailed.  Still, hanging with friends and drinking alcohol does not suck!

Several of us took in a double feature yesterday at the Palms.  First, we saw the 4th edition of John McClane saving the USA in Live Free or Die Hard.  Personally, I thought it was a very good movie and  was pretty entertained for 2 hours.  If you haven't seen it, it's definitely worth checking out.  It's 10 times better than some movies playing.  Which conveniently leads me to...

Transformers was the second part of movie night.  Honestly, it was BRUTAL!  I mean it was simply awful.  It was 2.5 hours and complete boredom. Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration but it was pretty lousy.  The only thing going for it was hot chicks.  I mean smoking, hot chicks.  The 21 year old Megan Fox was incredibly sexy  but unbelievably upstaged by this super stunning blonde vixen.  After a bit of research, I've established that it was a leggy 5'11", 23 year old Australian named Rachael Taylor.  Her role wasn't important to the plot of the movie but looking at her at least kept me awake.  Needless to say, skip Transformers and enjoy a cocktail with someone special in your life.

After the movies, we proceeded to head over to the Greenstein condo to hangout, eat some burgers, drink some beer and watch the fireworks.  Well, three out of four isn't bad I guess.  We apparently missed most of the fireworks while we were seeing the epic that was Transformers.  Bad Beat!

We ate some burgers and drank Coronas while listening to some tunes.  A board game called Cranium was brought into the mix but it was super annoying as about 3 of the people couldn't agree on the rules.  I retired early due to the constant arguing and fighting after every single question.  I guess, Story and Henriquez were victorious in the end.

As we drank more and more beer, four of us (Joe Sebok, Matt Palmer, Henriquez and of course LA) decided to put Joey Stapes to the challenge of finishing 5 large double burgers.  Let me remind you, this was after we had already eaten dinner a few hours earlier and had been drinking plenty of beer.  It was a freeroll for Stapleton.  The original bet was for a total of $500 but as he "struggled" through burger #2, he negotiated it up to $1,000.  Honestly, he basically "fleeced" his friends.  Well, at least that was our opinion.  He made it through 4.5+ burgers and with only about 3-4 large bites remaining, he asked if we wanted to buy out of the bet.  Confident, he would finish off the last burger we all settled for the original $500.  Why would he do that?  We're pretty sure the guilt of "fleecing" his friends was starting to seriously bother him.

When I was growing up, the NFL ran commercials during games where they would show a clip of a play and the fans would have to decide what the call on the field by the ref should be.  It was titled "You make the call."  So in that spirit, you make the call should Stapes be considered a "fleecer" by his friends or should the nickname of Fleecer Jr. be dropped once and for all.  (He earned the nickname of Fleecer Jr. for a fleece-job he pulled on Henriquez and myself at the very beginning of the series.)

I hope everyone had a happy 4th and to those serving come home soon and safe!

Last but not least, good luck this weekend to all the pros who have been blogging throughout the Series for us.  We look forward to a couple more blogs from each of you over the next 1.5 weeks.  Best of luck to Shane, Thomas, Scott, EFro and of course Joe and Gav. 

Until next time...