Tobey Maguire & Leo DiCaprio at Bellagio last night

Tobey Maguire was at the Bellagio last night (and likely many nights before), playing 100-200 blind NL. He was basically left alone most of the time, until all of the club donks started filtering out, walking past the poker room. Eventually large crowds gathered outside the rail for hours, and my 80-160 table was closest to the railtards. Occasionally someone would shout something stupid, and attempt to snap a cell phone photo.

Around 3am, Leo DiCaprio showed up with a few other guys and sat behind Tobey. This increased the railtarding even more. Eventually the Bellagio had to clear everyone from the rail.

Tobey has a scraggly beard and doesn't resemble very much the clean cut "Spiderman" you know and love.

An interesting hand that played out:

After moderate action prefop, board came Jd3d4s.

Tobey and Sam Farha (WSOP 2003 runner-up) gave action, with Tobey slapping down about 40k all-in. Farha kept encouraging him to pull back some of his money, and that he'd call a limited amount, provided neither bet after they settled on amount for the hand. After much discussion and debating, they pulled much of the money back, and the hand played out.

Turn: 4c
River: 7h

Farha turned over 89d, for 9 high. No wonder he wouldn't call such a large bet on the flop! Tobey turned over 75d, rivering the pair of 7s for the win. He had a gutshot and a 4-flush (actually drawing almost dead on the flush, though) on the flop. Interesting time to go all-in 40k, huh?

Especially since it wasn't even the nut seven high.

Meow.

damn i think ill play that game next time!

Neverwin, your friend Liz (aka "Twinkie") was in that game, as was Johnny Chan.

What limits do you play at the Bellagio Dan? I'm kinda surprised you play there at all of peak times. (Or maybe there's some tourney going on I don't know about.)

Also that seems pretty sleazy of Farha, though it turned out he was way ahead. Taking advantage of the newbie...

Druff, another high limit online player and The Cat were suppose to meet sometime this past weekend. Because of my sleep schedule, being a cat and all, I was asleep the few times they were both at the Bellagio. I promise we'll meet one day soon and prove to you that I'm really a poker playing cat. I'm going to be in So Cal first week of April. Maybe I'll meow up the Commerce if I'm not sleeping all day long.

Meow.

Usually I play 80-160, 100-200, or 150-300 at Bellagio.

How often do those games go? I believe the 80 is pretty regular, but thought that pure hold 'em games higher than that only occurred during tournaments.

BTW I think that makes you the only pro I know of who plays higher online than he plays live.

I also sometimes play the 300-600/400-800 type limit games live, if they're good.

The 80-160 always goes at Bellagio, but sometimes gets bumped up to 100 or 150. The bump-up isn't always at tournament time.

The games are also easier when it's not a tournament. There were some tournaments going this weekend, so the games were a little harder than usual.

Dan-

How do you know when the games are good, short of driving down there and checking them out yourself?

Do you have contacts in the pokerroom whom you call up or something?

Sorry for all the questions, I have very little experience in the B&M world.

You just get a feel for these things, like you do online.

Sometimes (like last night, for example), I play in 80 or 100 games that aren't so good. However, I usually have enough sense to ditch a fish-free 200 or higher game.

So Druff, did you employ your famous hit and run technique? You must have saved a ton avoiding paying time.

Meow.

i dont know if its fair to refer to tobey as a newbie any longer. from what ive heard hes become a good cardplayer. anyone who knows more about how hes doing in these big games mind sharing.
also while sammy may very well be the best PLO player in the world his no limit game leaves a little to be desired.
matty