Here's a day-by-day account of Noah Boeken's trip to Bellagio in Las Vegas for the World Poker Tour Championship:
Day 1: Noah Boeken, Marcel Lüske, Jordy Veenboer, and Benten Wijnen leave from Leidseplein, Amsterdam to go to Schiphol Airport. Nine hours later, they are in Newark, New Jersey, and another six hours later, they have reached their destination. Noah meets David Williams and his ex-girlfriend at FIX, and the Mizrachi brothers also drop by.
Day 2: At 9 o'clock in the morning, Noah is playing online, two tables of $100-$200 limit hold'em. His $3,000 tournament at Bellagio doesn't go as planned: Despite having an above-average stack early on, he ends up in a disappointing 37th place. Noah is disappointed and irritated, but joins in anyway when all the others want to check out the nightlife. Patrik Antonius has arranged a table in a club at the Ghostbar. Shortly thereafter, Marcel Lüske easily convinces everyone to go to an exclusive Maxim party at Wynn Las Vegas. They travel there by limo - and have a great time.
Day 3: Noah enjoys the sun and having breakfast at the swimming pool - where tennis star Serena Williams also happens to be. Marcel ends up in 40th place in the $5,000 no-limit hold'em event.
Day 4: Noah plays in the Fontana Lounge - in a tournament with a $500,000 prize pool. He has dinner at Noodles with the Mizrachi brothers. Noah comes close, but again not close enough - 21st place this time.
Day 5: It's the day of the $2,000 no-limit hold'em event with a $230,000 first prize. Noah accumulates a massive stack early on, and plays literally every hand. In the morning, Marcel takes some time to provide the TV crew, which is there to shoot footage of Noah and him, with some interesting takes. They shoot at the pool, and later at dinner. Patrik has arranged a table at PURE (in Caesars Palace), where they receive true VIP/celeb treatment. Noah is again not happy, because this time he finished in 13th place. It was close - but not close enough for his taste.
Days 6 and 7: He has dinner at FIX. The owner of the international Pokernews site drops by, Tony G. (Noah is responsible for the Dutch Pokernews.) He invites everyone to go skiing the next day - and they do. Traveling with two limos and a van, they take a 45-minute drive to the mountains, where they can ski while looking down at the bright lights of the City of Sin. Being a first-timer when it comes to skiing, Noah calls it quits early and watches Tobias Persson lose $125,000 in a single hand in a $200-$400 no-limit hold'em game while holding kings against aces. Marcel makes the final in a $3,000 no-limit hold'em event, while Noah is preparing for the start of a $5,000 event.
Day 8: Despite the fact that his friend Marcel is at a final table, Noah decides to play some poker in Patrik's hotel room. When he is informed that Marcel has reached the heads-up stage, Noah leaves the $100-$200 game arrives just in time to see the Flying Fox beat John Phan. Not much later, it is party time at TAO, one of the most beautiful clubs in Vegas.
Day 9: It's a quiet day. Noah and his friends do some shopping, and enjoy a nice party at PURE that includes Marcel, the Devilfish, and David Williams.
Day 10: Noah, Jordy, Benten, and the others participate in the $215 Sunday tournament at PokerStars. One of these "others," Thierry, is the only one who finishes in the money, a 100th place. Noah provides the film crew with some footage, while his friends watch Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi blow $225,000 at the baccarat table. However, down to his last $800, Michael is able to grind his way back to $180,000.
Day 11: Noah and friends have decided not to play any live tournaments today, and play online instead. Noah has reserved a table at STACK, an exclusive restaurant at The Mirage Hotel. Marcel receives a lot of praise and recognition for his recent big win, and also for the poker song that he just recorded. In the meantime, Carlos Mortensen wins three $2,500 satellites in a row for the next day's $25,000 main event.
Day 12: While Noah is playing the first day of the "big one", one of his friends, Jordy, is having dinner with the Devilfish - and they are joined by famous actor/avid poker player James Woods.
Day 13: It's the first day of the main event for Marcel. Noah takes a look at David Williams' beautiful mansion.
Day 14: It is the second day of the $25,000 main event, and Marcel works his $24,000 stack up to $75,000. Noah's stack goes in the opposite direction. With a large stack of $80,000 early on, he drops down to $50,000 and then gets eliminated by the highly aggressive Tony Bloom. Noah flat-calls a preflop raise with the 8 8, and then raises Tony's 12K bet all in after the flop of 9 7 3. Tony calls with a flopped set of sevens, meaning Noah still has a bunch of outs (any 8 or diamond), but he doesn't hit any. David Williams and Patrik Antonius end that day as two of the chip leaders. Noah and his friends have sushi at one of the best Japanese restaurants in Vegas, Sushi Roku.
Day 15: Noah doesn't sleep too well, and also suffers some beats when playing online in the morning. He holds his own and manages to recover though. Despite the fact that the Fontana Lounge (Bellagio's WPT tournament area) allows only participants now, Noah manages to sneak in, and he watches David and Patrik continue to do well.
Day 16 Noah plays the $640 tournament at PartyPoker (better known as the Million Guaranteed). Despite a good chip position early on, he ends up in a disappointing 50th place. Noah and David have a heated discussion about what went wrong in the WPT main event. Shortly thereafter, Noah and his friends jump into David's fancy Bentley and spend the night at his mansion.
Day 17: Noah suggests that his friends register for the Sunday Specials, and they play some side games on top of that: $80-$160 at UltimateBet. He has a farewell dinner with the TV crew at Shintaro's. He parties at Light, the nightclub at the hotel where everybody is staying. Devilfish, David, and Antonio all drop by.
Day 18: It's a calm day. Noah and his friends go out to play some golf. After a bit of online poker, everybody heads to bed early.
Day 19: It's another calm day. Noah plays online cash games (four-tabling $80-$160 hold'em and $50-$100 blinds pot-limit Omaha), and they all take it easy the rest of the day.
Day 20: David Williams calls from FIX, where he and his ex-girlfriend are, and Noah quits his cash game to join them. Later, everybody watches the TV broadcast of the December 2005 WPT final, in which Patrik finishes second to Rehne Pedersen. The party they have planned for the night is postponed until the next day.
Day 21: David has arranged a table at TAO at the Venetian Hotel, one of the best combinations of a club and restaurant in Vegas. After a few bottles of Grey Goose, most of the guys are pretty drunk. Some go back to the hotel, while the others continue to party - leaving everything to the readers' imaginations. (As you can see, you get to read only the "boring" stuff!)
Day 22: Everyone's recovering from the night before. Noah and Jordy discuss their plans for the future - or at least their plans for the remainder of this trip.
Day 23 and 24: Noah and friends join Patrik at PURE, but head to Tryst a little later. David Williams' friend, film producer/banker Daniel Sedek, has a table. He loves to play poker, and has played heads up against Gus Hansen, Johnny Chan, and, of course, David Williams. This time, he takes on Patrik Antonius, who is unable to beat his opponent in a game of seven hands total, $25,000 per hand. Patrik loses 5-2, and because both David and Noah have one-third shares in Patrik, they all lose 25 grand. Noah and David don't go to the pool party at REHAB (for the opening of the pool season at the Hard Rock Hotel), because $20,000 for a table and four bottles is a little too much after a 25K loss. Instead, they go and play poker in Noah's room, hoping to recover the losses they have just suffered. Noah succeeds, while David manages to win "only" $9,000.
Day 25: Everybody wakes up at about 5 p.m., meaning that breakfast is actually dinner. Two hours later, everybody is seated at the BOA steakhouse. David and Noah go back to their laptops, where Noah (who has had maybe a bit too much red wine) first digs himself a 10K hole in a $50-$100 pot-limit Omaha game, but then in no time recovers to be a 10K winner. Devilfish and his friends join Noah and his crew as they enjoy a nice party at the crowded JET.
Day 26: David and Marcel play the $5,000 H.O.S.E. event at Caesars Palace, and with about 20 players left, they are in extremely good shape. A large party at PURE is attended by Noah, Devilfish, and friends, and Marcel and David drop by later. Paris Hilton tries to sing her new (hit!) single to the audience. Let's just say that the DJ who took over for Paris did do a good job.
Day 27: Marcel and David finish first and second in the H.O.S.E. tournament. First prize is $93,000.
Day 28: It's a bad day for the online players. Noah and his crew had played on six different laptops simultaneously - but all lost a bunch of money. Routine starts to set in now that everybody has gotten used to the exquisite parties, expensive restaurants and fake boobs.
Day 29: Noah plays eight hands in $2,500 no-limit hold'em event - and fails to win any of them. He is out after just 30 minutes. Together with the Devilfish, Noah and his crew shake off the bad results from the past few days with a great party at Light.
Day 30: At the Venetian, the heads-up match between Liz Lieu and Erik Sagstrom takes place. Liz wins the deciding third match.
Day 31: At REHAB at the Hard Rock, Daniel Sedek, the film producer/banker from day 23, has arranged a special VIP table. He plays another 25K per hand, seven-hand match, this time against Antonio Esfandiari, and beats the Magician for 75K. Noah is a bit tipsy and takes on a challenge for 10K per hand against Daniel, again seven hands. Noah trash-talks his way to a 6-1 victory, but then loses 4-3 when the stakes are raised to 20K per hand. Noah then makes a big win in the next three matches when they play for different amounts. That night, they all have one final blast with a massive party, and a combination of alcohol and some Red Bull helps them make it through the night.
Day 32: For the last time, they have sushi at Sushi Roku. With 80 kilos of excess luggage and two extra suitcases, Noah and his friends arrive back at Schiphol Airport. They are already preparing for their next trips to Barcelona, Mallorca, Paris, and, of course, the World Series - yes, in Vegas again.
A full report of this trip (in Dutch only, written by Benten Wijnen, Jordy Veenboer, and Noah Boeken) is available under the title Leaving Las Vegas at www.pokernews.nl.
