Vacation!

Minneapolis, golf at Hazeltine, and more

We stayed with my brother on Monday night, and Tuesday the fun began. I went to bed at 1:00 am (which is 11:00 pm in California), and woke up at 4:00 am. Did my body think that this was a long nap?!? What the heck, as long as I was up-and couldn't fall back asleep-- I might as well go for a run. It was my first workout in over two weeks, because my neck and back were still bothering me from the NASCAR crash. At around 7:30 my brother and I hit his law firm ("Hellmuth and Johnson"), where I was to give a speech on "Winning in life and success." The local NBC affiliate decided to do a story on me. They have a regular Thursday night special segment that takes around 7 minutes on air. I was to be their special. So they taped me giving my speech, they taped me golfing at Hazletine, they taped me shooting 5 commercials for the WSOP game the next day, and finally they interviewed me after the commercial shoot ended. They put in a lot of effort for a 6 or 7 minutes segment!

After the speech we went right to Hazletine, where the course was in great shape. We golfed, and I broke even (small money match), but I had a great time. Then at 3:00 pm I had a conference call with Oasys Mobile about the new PH cell phone game. At 4:00 pm, I hung up and attended a meeting with Activision for the commercial shoot the next day. We would shoot for 12 hours, five commercials, plus some other viral stuff for the Internet only. I would start the day in a fake cast, which they would build around me. They had hired the guy that creates artificial bruises for Jet Li and Jackie Chan to "Fake" bloody me up, and make a cast for my arm. After the meeting ended I headed out to have dinner with the WPS ("World Poker Store") folks: including CEO Chuck Chastain. By then, my voice had had it, and I was feeling a bit sick. Still, as bad as I felt, I was a trooper; I finished dinner, and headed out to see the WPS "Poker League" at a restaurant/bar called "Bogarts." It was pretty amazing to see poker being played for no money, only prizes, and to see Bogarts filled my people on a night that it would have otherwise been empty. I predict that the WPS "Poker League" will catch on all over the world soon. I mean, every bar and restaurant could use a boost on a Tuesday night. The WPS guys dropped me off at my brother's place at 8:59 pm, and at 9:00 pm I was already asleep!

ESPN Commercials, more meetings, interviews, etc…

The limo was there at 8:30 am; waiting for me, as usual. When I arrived on location, we spent the first 2 hours creating and building a fake cast for my right arm. We would shoot three commercials centered around the Beatthebrat.com theme. In each commercial I would have more injuries than in the commercial before from people who didn't quite get that beatphil.com was just a slogan. I like the commercial theme; I just need to make sure that "Life doesn't imitate art." I don't want, or need any more injuries, especially after that NASCAR crash! We shot two more commercials themed over my alleged massive ego. They are pretty funny, and I'm sure that some people will believe that I believe what I'm saying in them, sigh...They really are over the top.

While the commercial shoot was going on, I was trying to write my Hand of the Week, shoot the viral stuff, do an interview with local NBC, and I took a meeting with the CEO of "Bite Tech." Needless to say it was a busy day. Finally, I took a limo back to my brothers while being pitched by the Bite Tech CEO. Bite Tech looks promising, and exciting. My attorneys are digging deeper, but it looks like a gold mine waiting to be opened up. When I got out of that limo, my vacation began. We watched an old super funny Adam Sandler movie ("Water Boy"), ordered pizza and chilled with my brother. Water Boy - "Bobby Boochey, I don't want you playin any o' that Foosball no more!"

Vacation baby!

The next four days my wife, kids, and I hung out at the family summer home in Minocqua, Wisconsin. It is right on a lake, and we swam, fished (only caught one fish), camped out on one of the islands, made Smores (graham crackers on the outside, roasted marshmallows--over the fire-and chocolate on the inside), hit our traditional favorite pizza restaurant of all time ("Mamas"), canoed, and rented a wave runner for a day. Nice break! On Tuesday we drove to Pewaukee to visit my wife's family, and on Wednesday I played a relatively (for Wisconsin) big golf match with the boys.

The golf match

We had a six on six scramble, featuring two three man teams per side, with the captain dividing the teams. Team A was Jon Green, his brother in law Steve, and I. We played my traditional foes (Team B) Mark "Poker ho" Kroon and Larry Michaels, along with newcomer John Farraro. The other two teams went off first, and cell phoned in their scores. We played for $800 a hole to start, and I had $500 of that, even though there were six of us on my team. Jon Green had $240 of it. Ho's front team (including "Wisco" Murray, Wayne Tyler, and Paul Clements) kept making birdies, and we found ourselves down the whole day. Luckily my team won hole number nine to only lose three units, and we pressed (doubled the back side) because we were getting three "half shots" on the back.

I was terrible! Normally I putt last, and I'm known for being a great putter. But I think that Doyle and Ivey broke me down at the WSOP on the practice putting green. I have been working on a new swing, and I nailed all of my drives around 260 yards up the middle. But Steve and Jon are so long that my ball didn't matter on almost every hole. The result of this new swing is that I fly the ball over the green a lot. Normally, I hit a 7 iron from 145 or 150. Now I fly it over the green! So I hardly helped a shot. I even demoted myself to back of the putting order, and that was a great move! Coming up 17 we felt we had a chance, but Poker ho drilled a drive, and then hit the ball to two feet. We lost the hole to go down 7 bets, and on 18 the front team for the bad guys made birdie, sigh. We were out matched pure and simple, and I was demoralized. I would try until the end, but I was accepting my loss. Somehow we birdied 18 for the tie, and I wasn't happy, but I had handled myself perfectly (no whining) and was ready to the $3,500, plus I lost two $500 side bets.

Now Jon Green said, "We have to play this out." I went along, and we played the first hole again for 4 units it was double hole at double stakes. The front B team--Wisco and Clements--made birdie again, and I was like, "What the XXZZEE!" Steve hit the ball to 12 feet, and the second B team missed their birdie putt. Steve hit a good putt, I blasted mine through the break, and now Jon Green stepped up. All the pressure was on him: 12 feet, one ball right to left at regular speed, or right edge if you hit it hard. If Jon missed, then I lost 11 bets ($5,500) plus $1,000 in side bets or $6,500. And I made up my mind that I was done playing. But Jon hit the perfect putt. Within one foot of rolling I shouted, "That's in the heart baby!" Now we would play a 6 unit hole. But I told Jon, "Let's switch the order of our teams. This hole will cause a $10,000 swing, and we can put pressure on Wisco and Paul! I don't think that they can play well with that kind of pressure! So we switched the order. Jon and Steve hit nice balls, and I teed up feeling loose and free, but aimed a little left just in case. I drilled my ball into the left side of the fairway, and it was a good thing I did, because Jon and Steve's balls were "OB" (out of bounds)! I hit another good shot to 22 feet, and I hit a good putt for the first time in a long time, but I missed a half inch to the left. Steve missed, and now John had all the heat on him. The other team had parred, but we needed this putt for a good chance to win the hole. It was 22 feet, dead straight and Jon nailed it right into the heart again, woo hoo!

Wisco and Paul choked on two shots each (they played Tyler's drive), but still had a 30 foot putt for birdie. Which they all three severely choked. Still our team choked as well, although they had an 8 footer for par, and what could be, if they knocked it in, the win. Timmy Belstner made the big putt last year for our team as the first man to putt, and he stepped up as first man again, and knocked this one in too! Wow, what an escape. But now we continued to golf. We went five on five for $1,600 a hole, and I liked my team now, because we had distance, and the A golfer Steve. We won the next hole, went ahead for the first time since the third hole and now they pressed us to $3,200 for the hole. We accepted, and our man Steve knocked the approach shot on the par 5 to 2 feet, we won and I had to quit to meet my wife and her family for dinner. What an escape! Jon Green misses, Phil loses $6,500. Instead, he makes, and I win $1,500. Before rushed off, we set-up a $1,000 buy-in no limit Hold'em poker game at Farraro's house in Pewaukee for later that night…

John Farraro had a waitress, and a dealer set up at his gorgeous house for 9:30 pm. I arrived at 11:00, and I lost $2,000 in what was a pretty nice game. I quit because it was 2:30 am, but I wanted to stay. I played 7c-6c pretty weird, and I may write a Hand of the Week about that hand soon.

Thursday family day

Thursday was a family day. At night, I ordered a limo for my sister Ann, who is a Special Olympics ace, to take her to Pewaukee to bowl with my sons and me. Then we limo-ed her back to Madison and caught a family movie in the room. "Knocked up" was pretty funny!