Portugal Observations

So I'm out of the tournament. I was card dead throughout, but still got up to 60,000 before losing them all in level 7. I thought I played pretty good and got bluffed by a Tiger Woods look a like. I posted two pics of him on twitter www.twitter.com/RealKidPoker
He raised the button, small blind called, and I called from the big blind with Ac 9c. Flop was A-A-10 two diamonds and we checked to Tiger who bet 2000, I called. Turn an 8 I check called 3000. The river was the 7d and I checked, he went all in for like 12,000. Yeah, I have three aces, but I can ONLY beat a total bluff. Based on how he was playing up until that point, I saw no reason to think he was bluffing here. I folded... and he showed Q-2 off! LOL, oops, nice hand Tiger.

The area is awesome. The first night we hit two outdoor clubs with a really cool vibe and I noticed two specific things: the women are much prettier than the sound of the language! The average looking woman here seems more attractive than most places I've been, and they all have the same nose! Like a cute, smaller version of the Penelope Cruz nose without the huge beak hook, or whatever you call it. Very cute anyway.
The language on the other hand, is not sexy to me. Spanish is a beautiful language that flows off the tongue, but Portuguese has far too many schmeg shamesheg sounds. Perfect example is the word for beer. Spanish ser-VA-sa. Simple and cool sounding. In Portuguese it sounds more like Sher-viggg-ghem. To each his own, and while Portuguese actually sounds a lot like Romanian, I rank it near the bottom of my favorites list along with German and Arabic. I love the sound of Spanish, Korean, French, and to a lesser degree Italian. I love Latin languages, but sometimes Italian words drag on too long and seem like too much of a production.
I find Japanese kind of funny. I always think of a really loud deep voice screaming the words in anger. Like, "AYYYE DOZE KAMIKAZE HAI!!!" Korean, on the hand, sounds like music to me. It flows like a song and there is plenty of intonation. For example, the word "Oh" depending how you say it, can have like 20 different meanings.
I used to live with a Korean girl about 10 years ago and she would be on the phone sometimes and repeat that word the whole conversation. "Oh... OH!...Oh, oh...Oh? Oooooh, anio!" It was pretty funny, I used to crack on her for that.

*****************************************************************

I had another random thought/warning for people who play the game marry, kill, ****. If you haven't played the game, it works like this: someone throws out three names at you, so for example, Angelina Jolie, Lady Gaga, and Halle Berry. Now, you have to choose to marry one, kill the other, and the third, you get to have your way with for one evening. If that one came my way, I'd marry Halle Berry, kill Lady Gaga, and have some fun with Angelina!

Now, one night years ago when I was actually married, I was at my wife's friends house and we started playing that game. I threw poker player names at them, and then they threw one my way I should have NEVER answered! I was asked what I'd do with the other three girls in the room! Awkward. So now, I say, "Well, I'd do her, marry her, and I guess I'd kill you sorry!"
Now, my wife must be thinking, "So do you ever think about sleeping with ****? Not only that, the one friend who I just whacked now is likely to dislike me and think I hate her. It's just a really big mess! By all means, the game is a ton of fun over drinks when you involve celebrities you don't know, but NEVER play it with people you actually do know! It gets ugly fast... not sure what made me think of that, lol, but I thought I'd share.

*****************************************************************

I'm undecided about leaving early at this point and I'll make my decision tomorrow. Hanging on the beach and making a vacation of it doesn't sound like a bad idea. The one problem I have is that I'm in the midst of getting laser hair removal on my chest, back, and neck, and you just aren't allowed to tan those areas, so I'd have to lay out with a shirt on, which is just kind of bizarre. I've done 3 treatments so far and it TOTALLY works. It hurts like hell, but it definitely works. You have to wait like 2-3 months between sessions, and it takes between 5-9 to get rid of the hair completely, so that means I can't really tan till maybe next summer, so in the meantime I'll be rocking the farmer tan.

*****************************************************************

P90X was awesome, but I didn't complete it. I made it through 9 weeks, but missed the last 3. I can already tell from not working out that I'm not as strong as I was and I may decide to start all over again soon. It's just hard when you travel, and I'll be in Europe in September for a while it looks like.

I'm going back to LA first, though, and I'm playing a small role in a film my friend is directing that looks like it's going to be really funny. It's called Detention, and I guess you could describe it as a high school comedy/horror film with a killer script. After that, it's back to the WSOPE where I'll play the heads up event and then the main event, trying to make my third consecutive final table there after a tough second place finish last year. That loss stung.

In the meantime, I'll also be playing online a bit on PokerStars, reviving my micro limit challenge. Put in a session tonight and booked a solid win of $36.45 which gets my bankroll back up over $190 playing $0.25-$50. I started at that level with $250 and need to win an additional $250 to get to the next level, so that could take a while, or I could go broke :-)

So other than that, not a whole lot happening. Just gearing up for the homestretch in 2010 that looks to be packed with a decent number of tournaments, so hopefully I'll run good and make some deep runs the rest of the year.

Daniel Negreanu is the 2004 CardPlayer Magazine and World Poker Tour Player of the Year. He presents his poker strategies in one-on-one virtual training at pokervt.com and writes a weekly syndicated newspaper column.
Read all of Daniel Negreanu's poker blog and poker articles at Full Contact Poker.