A Brit in Vegas » Santa Anita

Recession hits racing.

Steve — Thu, 28 May 2009 05:10:55 +0000

Hollywood Park has decided to take Monday, Tuesday and Wednesdays off with immediate effect. They cite this will make the racing more competitive. The truth is less horses are being claimed as the trainers are finding it difficult to find owners. I have come to love my horse racing in SoCal and would love to attend Del Mar after the WSOP so it is sad to see the black clouds hanging over the industry. The story here

My favourite racetrack Santa Anita will be up for auction this summer as part of Magnas chapter 11 bankruptcy plans. An interview with the CEO here.

St Patricks Day blog

Steve — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 08:01:04 +0000

I learned today the Asian community does not really embrace St Patrick’s Day. I may as well have been dressed as Father Christmas as I stood out in my heavenly ,make that edge of heaven (Arcadia), ‘hood today in a green Irish rugby shirt. As I
moved south towards hell, East LA where people bbq on shopping trolleys ,hey you don’t see that in Arcadia, a few Mexicans seemed to embrace the idea of getting drunk on a Tuesday. Strange, I always thought St Patricks Day was arranged to be during the Cheltenham festival thus ensuring the Cheltenham economy survives twevle months until the next Irish invasion.

I did find one cocktail waitress who had bought a green tip jar from the 99c store and had green strands of hair (photo).

To catch up with what is happening at the Bike: Lea Nehme won the Ladies event for the second Sunday. I don’t know what she has planned for next Sunday. Maybe a ladies event at Rincon?

Robert Durant, a Commerce/Bike regular, won Mondays Omaha8 event. Robert beat 119 other entries to take home $13k.

Tomorrow and Thursday are both Super days for Fridays main event. I may update that live from the Its a Grind coffee shop across Eastern from the Bike. The weather looks great tomorrow for a day at the track. However, I do not have any passes until April which is unusual. Maybe I will pay to go or maybe I will watch the Man City game on my newly acquired Setanta channel.

Wheres the Guinness?

Big Cap day at Santa Anita

Steve — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 06:52:31 +0000

Over 48k although many, like myself, would have gone through the turnstile multiple times for the free bag and future tickets.

Going Green.Switch to the Bike.

Steve — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 20:14:20 +0000

My commute hasn’t changed much with my coverage of the “Winnin on the Green” tournie at the Bike. Located just a couple of miles from the Commerce it would be an easy cycle from the one to the other. I wasn’t expecting to see shopping centers all around and could easily spend my dinner breaks in Ross across Florence/Eastern from the card room.

I had the feeling of changing to a new school as I had never been to the Bike before. However, Kelly O’Hara had made me welcome and security had been warned about the Brit with a camera. The food menu in the high limit looks similar to the Commerce. Yosh wasn’t hosting his game on Friday but Mo was.

The tournament co ordinator is Dennis WilliamsÂ and the first two tournaments have attracted over 300 players per tournie.

Results : Event #1 $300 NLHE 1) Kane Sec $36k, 2) Kevin Gagliotta, 3) Henry So, 4) L Babahekian 5) A Barbarian 6) Brandon Lee 7) Sandy Heyes 8) Ameen Behzadnia 9) Ha Diep

Event #2 $325 bounty 1) Amir Ghazvinian $19k 2)Kevork Kozakjian 3) Hugo Cerdeiro 4) Leang Kuoch 5) Yun Zeng 6) Henry Kaptanjian 7) Pogos Simityan 8) Ricardo Moreno 9) Andy Phan

With such a big weekend in Las Vegas it is sad to see the likes of Thor Hanson, Chris Gregorian and Paul Dardon grinding it out here but then again maybe they are in LA to go to Santa Anita today. I know I am.

Owners of Santa Anita file for bankruptcy.

Steve — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 09:36:55 +0000

MagnaÂ the, Canadian based, owners of pokergossips favourite racetrack, Santa Anita, today filed for Chapter 11 protection after failing to make a substantial payment to a Canadian bank. Magna has up to 25000 creditors similar to poker player Bobby Bellande.

I was at the track today and rumours of cutbacks were circulating. The good news $1 coffees are now being offered in addition to free admission on Fridays. I could go racing Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week for free with Saturdays superb Big Cap day only costing $1 which includes a Santa Anita overnight bag. Of course, the racetrack takes up to 20% of all money wagered but this has to cover the many expenses of running the track plus prize money, I believe.

I hope L.A. turns out in record numbers this Saturday to show support for its finest track.

Magna also owns Pimlico, Golden Gate, Gulfstream and Lone Star racetracks plus Xpress bet an online wagering service.

Asked if she was to bail out her hometown racetrack billionheiress poker player Maria Ho answered, “I would rather own the Mall.” By the way it was Marias 26th birthday yesterday. A happy one, I hope.[[Show as slideshow]]

Santa Anita weekend

Steve — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 07:35:08 +0000

Horse

Steve — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 04:48:57 +0000

Valentines Day

Steve — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 21:09:34 +0000

John Phan is obviously better at drinking and playing than Jared Hamby as John enters Day2 as one of the chip leaders whereas Jared has the choice of playing the $500 or washing his green cap. Overnight counts for the $1500:

Matt Heiligerthaler 123k, Luke Priour 113k, F Adli 112k, Jeff Madsen 110k, John Phan 101k, David Peters 99k, Mike Blocksidge 94k, Kia Mohajeri 86k, V Phan 75k, Sam Stein 75k, Dave Fox 74k + Matt Stout 71k. First place is $107593.

The tournament has begun which means the drinking has begun. John Phan has ordered a bottle of Cabernet and joining him in a glass of the red stuff are Luke Priour, Jeff Madsen and Ted Lawson.

Those not drinking , at least not at the table, are:
23) Taher Alishek
22) Kia Mohajeri
21) Vinny Pahuja
20) Justin Scott
19) Dan Stir

Each player receives $3525.

Sweating Ted are his wife Michelle, Tiffany Michelle and Liv Boeree.

Next batch ofÂ eliminations:
18) Randy Sim
17) Joe Kuether
16) Lawrence Rosen

All players receive $3896

What odds a Madsen v Phan heads up complete with red wine? More eliminations:
15) Tom McCormick
14) Sam Stein
13) Ted Lawson

Each receives $4267

Jeff Madsen leads with approx 355k. John Phan follows with 175k., Luke Priour 170k, Matt H 150k. Now Tiffany has switched her allegiance to Madsen.

Todays $500 had 511 entries including Anna Wroblewski. At 6:10pm only 150 survived including Tony TNT Nasr + ParaG.

A quick walk down the steep stairs revealed very little action in the cash area. Maybe poker players are a romantic group after all. Not so Greg Mueller who has his cocktail waitress girlfriend watching him play Barry Greenstein at Chinese. Cyndy Violette must not have a date either.

7pm: Madsen (1010) eliminates David Fox (KK).Fox wins $4638. John Phan is on his third bottle. On table 35 David Peters eliminates Michael Blocksidge ($4638). Michael had been nursing 4ok in the hope of moving up the ladder.At table 34 Luke Priour, who is looking wasted after trying to match Phan in the drinking comp, eliminates Vu Phan (no relation). $4638. The final table is set.
1) Matt Heiligenthaler
2) Jeff Madsen
3) Fred Adli
4) Tyler Patterson
5) Luke Priour
6) John Phan
7) Lance Oliver
8 Matt Stout
9) David Peters

John Phan is out. Don’t drink and bluff is the lesson here. It is dinner time so Priour and Madsen have a chance to put add some food to their wine. Dinner time chip counts (and final update before my pilgramage back to the foothills)Photos will be added later. 78 left in todays tournament out of 511.

Jeff Madsen 470k, Fred Adli 350k, Tyler Patterson 300k, Luke Priour 110k, Matt Heiligenthaler 75k, Lance Oliver 75k, David Peters 70k + Matthew Stout 60k.

Another million dollar pool expected at Santa Anita tomorrow for the pick 6. Snow Day has been postponed until March.

End of play in the $500. Neil Ho 214k, Fabio Dagata 193k, Saif Ahmad 192k, Jeff Vanchiro 185k, Jesse Simonelli 182k, Elvis Huynh 133k, Josh VanDuyn 124k, Mike Digaetano 122k, Kasey Nam 118k, Aaron Kreskin 105k, Ben Tang 81k, Sang Pham 78k.

Rain delay

Steve — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 07:04:04 +0000

I won’t be doing the pilgramage to the Commerce in the rain again after yesterdays expensive fiasco so no coverage today and I will take a look at the FT and weather before deciding whether to enjoy a good card at Santa Anita or the cards at the Commerce.

In the $500 NLHE I didn’t notice Para Gill in the survivors so apologies to old Parakeet. Liv Boeree, David Levi, Fabrice Soulier and Eric Mizrachi all cashed.[[Show as slideshow]]

Fabrice Soulier is the chip leader at todays stud final. The final table includes quite a few specialists such as Barbara Lewis and Adam Roberts.

404 for the rebuy including Scott Montgomery. Gavin Smith slips further down the Canadian rankings.

Sunday at Santa Anita

Steve — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 03:37:55 +0000

Sundays! When the Mexican women cook menudo and mole and the men watch soccer. I like the weekends in L.A., my host Tiffany, not Michelle or Williamson tg, doesn’t have to take her triplets to school or go to work. I usually sit myself at the breakfast table in time for pancakes, muffins or oatmeal. A cup of Fresh & Easy organic coffee and I am ready to go…. into the living room to watch the soccer. In this household it is only available en espanyol so I feel like I am educating myself while I watch. Seeing the snow flurries on Merseyside this morning reminded me how fortunate I was to have to make the decision whether to wear shorts to the racetrack later in the morning.

At the track a black gelding by Marju called “Icemancometh” reminded me that I had forgotten to write about the poker player or his xxx bling headphones with “Iceman” written in diamonds.

In the parade I like the look of ” Mr Hot Stuff” in the fifth but surely the 1-5 favourite must be a cert. Result 1) Mr Hot Stuff 9-1. The racecard has a $10 slot play coupon. I should tell Allen Kessler. If the trip cost $9 in gas round trip it is +Ev to the Chainsaw.

After racing I go to a Goodwill store where I find a 1992 Santa Anita stein. This would be unique in England. Maybe I do have a pension plan afterall.

No Commerce for me today. I can inform you that John Phan, Joe Pelton, David Tran, Tommy Wang and Kevin Song all finished in the money in yesterdays rebuy tournament.