It’s great to be back home!!! Before I was able to settle in, I was invited by Maria Ho to play the Locks of Love Celebrity Charity poker tournament at Skybar. After Maria won the tournament we went over to famous Saddle Ranch. Maria and I had a little prop bet and I won. Needless to say, she must have been drinking a little bit too much to subject herself to what she would’ve had to have done had I not given mercy and let her out by riding the mechanical bull right then and there! Ted Forrest: watch out, I’m winning prop bets now, I will be back for revenge! (sorry I cannot say what Maria would’ve had to have done, but it would’ve been probably the most humiliating experience of her life)

My mental coach/good friend from Florida, Tony, flew in for the weekend. We went to eat at one of my new favorite lunch spots, Urth Caffe. It’s a healthy trendy cafe in West Hollywood. I always get some sort of panini and the pumpkin pie. Later that day Tony, my dad, Anita, and I went to the Formula Drift event in Irwindale, CA. It was the first drift event I’ve ever been to. I was really into
the import car scene when I was 13-18 years old and I had always wanted to go see Formula Drift, but since I lived in Florida, there weren’t very many events out there. There were a few small crashes and a lot of great drifting. I was surprised to see Full Tilt Poker sponsored a drift car. That was pretty cool to all of a sudden see a huge FTP logo on the side of a car. We had King Taco (another one of my L.A. favs) during a break.

This past Sunday was the final day of the Summer Sessions at XIV. We had a large great group of fun people including Maria Ho, Tiffany Michelle, David Alan Grier, Ali Eslami, Melyssa Grace from the infamous Royal Flush girls, Anita and a group of five other non-poker related friends. Things got pretty wild. It was definitely one of the best club experiences I’ve ever had in my life. The crowd was completely amped and went pretty much insane with no inhibitions of partying wildly like crazy people(I love it). I’m pretty sure everyone else had an amazing time and afterwards we went to Swingers for dinner. The following morning we went to The Griddle for some of their vast assortment of different kinds of giant pancakes.

I was also able spend a couple of days with Jared Huggins, “RelaxedPrecision” the now formerly homeless guy in the very long threads on the TwoPlusTwo forums. He is such a great guy. We dropped by the movie set for the filming of “Detention.” It was freezing that night so we only stayed for an hour or two. The next day I let Jared rail me while I played some cash games online. Right after that we went for a hike at Runyon canyon where my friend Tony and I gave him some life direction advice. Fortunately, Jared and I decided to get some video coverage of our time spent together. Jared is editing the video and he should have the video up soon, it’s good stuff. Right before I left to Vegas for the World Poker Tour Festa Al Lago tournament, Jared, my dad, Anita, and I went to dinner at Madeo. This restaurant is legit italian and well regarded as the best in West L.A. I had this unique veal ravioli dish with a walnut sauce and it was amazing like nothing I had ever had before. The desserts are just as good too.

Also don’t forget to pick up a copy of this month’s Bluff Magazine! Yours truly is on the cover!