Diary of a Poker Diva – Liz Lieu

Happy Halloween everybody!

Friday Night!! Just so you know, this is going to be short. It is Halloween weekend in Vegas and one of the most interesting and busiest weekends of the year for the Clubs. Big plans with the girls! Me, Lisa, Lacey and Galina are meeting up and heading over to TAO. I’ve received several text messages from friends throughout the day asking me to swing by TAO to party tonight.

Just to give you a quick update, the rest of the week has been pretty mellow. I stayed at home most of this week. Since my last journal entry, I’ve been busy doing interviews, working on my different blogs and working on a poker article. I did get out one day and went to watch a movie then played some Bingo afterwards at the Hard Rock with some girlfriends. That was a blast!! I love Bingo. Not many people know this about me but I can play that game all day long.

My computer is so hot at the moment, it might explode!! The computer has been on all day and I think it’s about to overheat! I do want to send a special announcement to my Niece and Nephew who both turned 14 yesterday. They are twins. I am extremely lucky to have them in my life. Every year I call them to wish them a Happy Birthday and ask them what they want. This year, they hardly asked for anything at all. My niece in particular specifically requested that the gift be under $40. I told her she could get anything she wanted and I could afford to spend more but she told me she already had, “The greatest aunt in the world for my present.” I was so touched by her sincerity and couldn’t hold back my tears after hearing that. She has no greed or selfishness in her.

Well I’m off to go party with my girlfriends tonight in LV and tomorrow I fly to Los Angeles to attend Shannon Elizabeth’s Scavenger Hunt party she is hosting. That should be a lot of fun. I am looking forward to hanging out with my good friend Shannon and than I am back to Las Vegas in a couple days. I hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween weekend. I will update my blog and hope to have lots of interesting stories to tell you guys from my weekend adventures.

I spent the last two days just chilling at home, recuperating from the long weekend of partying with my friends. Play time’s over, now its back to business again.

I’ve got a couple of shout outs that I would like to share with everyone, it’s all good! Just around the corner in November, CardPlayer Bulgaria’s third issue is expected to hit news stands and casinos and I’m delighted to be gracing the cover of their November issue. So my poker friends and fans in Bulgaria, keep an eye out for it. A big thanks and best wishes to you all!

12-05-2008 – A documentary film entitled “IN THE RED ZONE”
Director Jean-Marie NIZAN along with LABEL-IMAGE a TV production company based in Paris, France will be traveling to Las Vegas to conduct an exclusive interview with me to talk with them about my passion with cards and the relationships between Cinema and Poker.

About the Film
A documentary with Mickey Rourke, Nascar driver + poker players Liz Lieu and a couple others.

The film focuses on 3 domains where characters gamble with their lives on-screen: the boxer in the ring, the player at the card table, and the driver on the asphalt track.

Red like the boxer’s blood. Red like the ace of diamonds. Red like the rev counter’s danger zone.

Three territories, three locations, three sets of rules to define three genres. Working from these archetypes, the directors bring their talent into play, using and purposely transgressing conventional practices.

In his look back at boxing, gambling and automobiles, the documentary’s director Jean-Marie NIZAN reviews some of the greatest moments in cinema over the last forty years: The Cincinnati Kid, Raging Bull, The Sting, Grand-Prix, Rocky, Bobby Deerfield, Casino, Million Dollar Baby, to name just a few …

Wanting to “cross” interviews of cinema people (directors and actors) who already have approach the genre and poker players, car racers and boxers.

Combining three different sports, all having one thing in common – Lives constantly living on the edge! Definitely very interesting and I’m pleased to have been approached and asked to participate in this film!

Cheers!

I’m Changing…

My blog to make it more personal. Here I will share with everyone my everyday life, new adventures, random thoughts and feelings. I hope you all will enjoy as I take you along with me on my journey through life. I will try and treat this new blog more like a journal. Making several entries throughout the week. I will keep you posted on the latest and greatest.

Welcome to the Diary of a Poker Diva! Why the change? Because I’ve changed as a person in this past year. So much has happened in my life in 2008, having to encounter some very painful experiences off the felt. In many ways this has been a transforming year for me. A year of growth despite the many personal setbacks. I wanted to share those experiences on a more intimate level with my family, fans, and friends who stuck with me through thick and thin. I hope you enjoy this new format and provide feedback.

10-26-08

Well this is a great starting point for this new blog. It was a very interesting weekend. I was able to get out of my condo in Las Vegas and hang out with so many of my close friends. On Friday, I met up with some good friends for dinner. My girlfriend Lacey Jones called me and told me we were having dinner with Michael Phelps at Simons restaurant at The Palms. Yes, that Michael Phelps. He is in town for the Festa Al Lago Classic (WPT) at the Bellagio. I arrived late but my friends Lacey Jones, Maria Ho, and Jeff Madsen were already there to greet me along with Michael and one of his poker friends Scott Freeman. After meeting Michael I thought he was a cool guy, very laid back and down to earth.

After dinner, we all hopped in a limo and headed over to TAO Night Club where Michael had a table on the dance floor under the catwalk. The MC made an announcement that Michael Phelps was in the house at the beginning of the night and everyone applauded. So many other poker players showed up as well including David Williams, Phil Laak, Phil Hellmuth, Roland De Wolfe, and Antonio Esfandiari, to name just a few. It turned out to be a really fun night and since I haven’t gone out to the clubs much at all in 2008, it was a good change of pace for me and everyone was having so much fun.

I had so much fun on Friday I thought I would roll the dice on Saturday too. I met up with Lacey and Maria again. Our plan was to go to the Cathouse at the Luxor but when we arrived, we were waiting around for a few people that we agreed to meet. I’m not a very patient person, hehe, so after awhile I decided lets do something else. Turns out a bunch of poker players had a table at the Bank. So, we decided to go there. We turned around and lost Lacey. We had some other people in our group too so me and Maria decided to head to the Bank and we knew Lacey was safe. When we arrived at The Bank, the club was packed with poker pros partying like rockstars. We partied with them for awhile and eventually I got tired and went home.

All in all it was a pretty eventful weekend. I was glad I came out and I am really excited about what is coming down the road as well.

Cheers!

Has it really been two months since I posted here? Bad, bad Liz. I have to make this more of a habit. My posts at PokerListings work out pretty well, but I neglect my own site – not good at all!

A lot has happened in these last two months. I headed to Macau to play in the APT and APPT events there. I was hoping for a return to a Final Table or two but no luck. The APT was definitely the better run of the two events. They really took care of the poker players and made me feel special.

I headed to Hong Kong and had a great time with some of my friends as well as friends of Alex. Hong Kong is a real blast, and I hope I can get back there soon. I got a great new tattoo as well in Thailand. The artist used bamboo, which takes longer but I think is nicer. After my spiritual time in my homeland for my father’s ceremony, I wanted something really special. And it is.

For the last few weeks, I’ve been back in LA. And I’ve decided to spend more time back here in LA and Vegas. I just haven’t liked being so far away from friends and family, and I haven’t been a big fan of all the travel and hotels. I liked London, but I think ultimately I was just too alone there. Maybe I didn’t give it a good chance as I was hopping around all over Europe when I got there.

I’ve been spending time at the Commerce, and the cash games have been very juicy, real action games that play to my strength. Unfortunately, I’ve had a tough run last week. I’m proud of how I handled it, running away to Cabo with my girlfriends rather than getting caught up in the emotion of a big loss. All of the beautiful casinos of Las Vegas are built on that human emotion, the fear and frustration and anger of taking a big hit. I feel those same emotions, but I’ve built a thick skin that keeps me from tilting and lets me get through these sessions.

And what a great weekend it was with my girlfriends in Cabo. Cathleen, Jackie, and Tiffany have been my friends for so long. They are the ones who give me tough love through everything, through poker, through men, through tough family times. They are so close to me that they don’t fear speaking the truth as to what they see. They had planned on going with their families for awhile, and I wasn’t sure if I would make it or not. I’m very glad I did.

I spent lots of time sunning, just relaxing without thinking about too much. Saturday was a day of rough weather, so it was just a lot of lounging around plus a spa visit. I really feel rejuvenated after this trip, and I’m ready to hit the tables hard.

I’m going to be spending most of my time in cash games at Commerce when I’m in LA and at the Bellagio when I’m in Vegas. I’ll probably play the bigger tourneys, but I need to get back into grind mode for awhile.  I haven’t had the stamina to play the twenty and thirty-hour sessions, but I have felt better playing for ten or twelve hours at a time. I want to be sure I’m sharp and at my best, as I think the play has improved at the stakes I’m playing at.

I don’t want to promise that I’ll keep my blog up more here at LizLieu.net, but I promise it won’t be two months again until the next post. In fact, check back here as I hope to have a post up later this week from Vegas. Keep checking out my posts at PokerListings.com. Keep up the comments everywhere. I really love hearing from everyone.