So exactly one year into poker, I set off in May for the WSOP. I had signed a backing deal, and spokesmodel deal with a company called Dirty Pretty Things Jewelry and was on my way. I lived in Vegas for 2 months between a furnished condo, the Palms, The Rio, and staying with my friends. It was seriously like summer camp. HIGHLIGHTS: laying out at Wet Republic with Etay and Liv Boeree, clubbing it up on nights when my good friend Playmate Tiffany Taylor came in town and Christine Arnett at the Bank, the kick ass JAYZ, Fabolous, and Ciara July 4th concert with Joy Miller, weekly grind sessions with my online friends at their house (Carter and his whole crew), on camera work that I did interviewing people for Bluff Magazine and ESPN at the WSOP, sweating my friend Billy Kopp who took 12th in the Main, and playing in multiple events myself… it was a REALLY long summer. I think the weekly online grind sessions on Sunday improved my game more than anything else I have ever done in a short amount of time. My thoughts are all over the place as I write this remembering everything that happened.
Amongst my favorite interviews at the WSOP I did for Bluff Magazine when I was the on camera host were: Dennis Phillips (what a great guy), Jason Mercier (who won the Event #5 WSOP PLO), Steve Sung (who was probably the most stunned and speechless winner I’ve ever seen) :), and Jeffrey Pollack (everyone’s favorite Corporate Commish).

As far as playing tournaments at the WSOP: I played in the ladies tourney and bubbled that, a couple of the 1500’s no luck there, and the Main Event, which was hands down the most exciting thing I’ve ever done (In my mind). On day 1 I had several good players at my table including Danny Wong and was able to chip up pretty well. Day 2 brought Cornell Cimpan (the LAPC winner) and Noah Schwartz (aka “McLovin” who I became friends with later) in my table draw. It was a really long day. I t was extremely difficult for me given my lack of experience (having only played for a year) to hold up against a crazy player like Cornell, but I finally figured out how to play back at him and made it through to Day 3. Day 3 I doubled up quickly, then got it all in ak vs aq… and well you know the rest.
During my WSOP stint I also played in the Dream Team Poker Event with Jerry Yang, and Eric Aude. Our team was called “Six Hands, Four Nutz, and a Rack On Tilt” paying homage to certain body parts, and our sponsor, On Tilt. Lol.
I left Vegas to shoot the ad campaign for Dirty Pretty Things, which is running in magazines and on their site now. When i got back to LA, I was invited to play in the Bicycle Casino’s Celebrity Charity Tournament for the WPT’s Legends of Poker, and was really happy to have taken 9th and made the final table with Annie Duke and Van Nguyen. Since I’ve been back in LA I have been working alot with modeling and acting gigs, grinding nonstop online, and the next live event I plan to play in is the Main Event for Legends Aug 22nd. I have a layout in LVM magazine coming out Aug 23rd so feel free to check that out.
Till next time….. C
http://twitter.com/lindleyloo

So, where to begin. It has been about three months since I wrote my last blog, and considering I am only 8 months now into my journey of playing poker, I guess a lot has happened since then. I will just go straight into it. Harrah’s had me come out to their Tunica property for the WSOP circuit event, and I had a blast. Thanks so much to Patrick Collins at Harrah’s….they took such good care of me and I LOVED the food at their Paula Dean buffet. REALLY glad I didn’t stay too long or I would have gained a million pounds the food was amazing.

I won a few single table satellites, and actually cashed in one of the lower limit buy ins, taking 20th (sweet). I also did several morning tv shows promoting Harrah’s and some projects I have coming out acting wise in Memphis, TN (about 45 minutes from Tunica)…including Good Morning Memphis and Wakeup Memphis one Fox the other CBS. These were my first ever “live” tv show interviews as a poker player, not just as an actress. You can check one of them out here.
Good Morning Memphis Interview
I am originally from Tennessee so I got to see my dad, and some really good friends from the ole days while I was in the South. Joy Miller and Randy flew in from Bluff and covered the event and made sure I had one good night of Vegas-style partying too much- but a good too much. That was until the next morning when I had to take a long road trip hungover with my stepdad to Nashville. Please, you try explaining wearing sunglasses at night and sitting hunched over for four hours in a car to your family-thanks alot JOY!!! Just kidding :).
Then onto the LAPC…..
The first few days I played four sit and gos…and won or chopped three of them. The first LAPC sit and go I did I had aces four times, kings, and ace king within two orbits. Then all of the sudden after that satellite- I ran really bad. Is it possible to use up all of your luck for awhile in one tournament? The day before yesterday the bad luck hit. The best hand I looked at for two days straight (including the sit and go tonight) the entire time was pocket 7’s. I played two lower limit buyins at the LAPC and went pretty deep but not deep enough to cash (ahhhh). Hmmmm….. I’d like to know how long streaks of bad luck have lasted for you in the past???? Feel free to comment at the bottom- I’d really like to know.
Every single poker player I have ever seen or heard of in my life is in town I swear. It has been really fun having all of my good friends here where I live playing. Etay, Cantu, Madsen, Fuller, Angie, Maria Ho (she’s a native OBV). Congrats to Fuller who took 8th in a 2k already, and to Madsen took down first in the 1500. I also met Liv Boeree who is here playing…she is really cool. Love the accent! We all had one fun night out at Barney’s Beanery in Santa Monica of darts, shuffle board, air hockey, and again a little too much drinking. Something about poker players, seems to be a theme when they all get together lol. We actually got kicked out by the manager because they ran out of alcohol.

Upon leaving Commerce tonight, I actually ran into Erica Shoenberg of all places in the ladies BANO. I have heard about her for a long time through our mutual friend Hollywood Davers, and finally met her. She is Hot! Lol - Everyone already knew that I guess just reiterating a point. She was really nice too.
Well, I am off to bed because I have a really long day tmo (auditions etc etc) and for my farewell I will leave you with a teaser…I shot Curb Your Enthusiasm in a scene with Larry David and Christian Slater that will be airing soon…. to be continued.
xoxo, C

So it is Monday, and I just got home last night from my weekend excursion to Vegas.

Since I last wrote my blog, I have had some really great poker experiences and one in particular I was so happy about.

I played my second weekly deep stack tournament at The Hustler Casino last week, and I made my first ever LIVE final table. I have final tabled smaller events online, but this was my first experience making it live. It was by the skin of my teeth! I went into the final ten with the least chips, and ended up finishing 8th. The buy in was 350 and the field was pretty small- like 150 people. It was just really cool to start having results even on a small scale this early on in my playing (6 months lol). Hopefully it will continue to escalate as I learn……….

I will be back there every week so if your in the LA area playing say hi :).

Last week, there were two separate parties for the release of the Bluff Cover. One in Los Angeles at AREA, and the other November 8th in Vegas. I was happy to host both, and really want to thank everyone for coming out. I especially want to thank Nicole, Maria Ho, and Tiffany Michelle - they were very helpful and saved the night when there was a mixup with tables!!! The party at The Bank in Vegas was particularly a blast, I danced so hard I actually broke one of my heels! There is a fun video of Lacey, me and everyone at the party on the red carpet on Rawvegas so check it out.

We stayed at the Hard Rock, which has the most bad ass poker room. Maria and I played cash games there awhile and it was really a good mix of pros at the game. Definitely helps to play with people at that level. Steve Cyr is the VIP manager there and he was just amazing.

There was a fun tournament for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). that Hoyt Corkins put on at the Harley Davidson Center in Vegas on Saturday, and I was happy to see everyone supporting the cause and playing, including my past “poker judge” from the Best Damn Poker Show Season 2, Phil Helmuth. I forgot how tall he is - jeez!!! I swear that guy has to be 6′6″.

It makes me really happy to see poker celebrities using their skill for a good cause. At the tournament I also met some of the owners of a bad ass jewelry line who were there supporting the cause, called Hardcore Elegance. They were nice enough to provide a gorgeous gold skull bracelet that I wore on the red carpet that night for the Bluff Four Year Anniversary Party and everyone loved it.

On Sunday I went to watch the November Nine and it was the first WSOP Main Event table I had ever gone to. It was really exciting, everyone was there, and I was particularly impressed with the respect the audience showed the entire time for the players. I felt like I was on an episode of the Twilight Zone! It looked like there were a hundred Dennis Phillips everywhere - all of his fans and friends in the audience were wearing red baseball hats just like him - lol.

Back in LA now, shooting a hair campaign all week, so that should be interesting! I will also be playing in some of the Holiday events at the Commerce during November, so wish me luck.

Till next time,

Christina Lindley

What is up?

So it is the weekend. I am, as promised giving you an update on the release of the BLUFF four year anniversary issue that Lacey Jones and I shot the cover of, it comes out in two weeks - I am so excited! Rawvegas.tv actually put up a sneak peek video from behind the scenes of the shoot - Thanks for doing such a great job Newby! You can see it there, here, or on wickedchopspoker.com.

There is also going to be an official magazine release party that Lacey and I are cohosting at the BANK at the Bellagio. It is the night before the November 9th final table of the WSOP so all the big guns should be in town, and so far according to their confirmations, at the party!! I would love to see you guys there. More details and the flyer as I receive them…..
On a personal note, my good friend Joy Miller is back from four months in Europe, and I got to catch up with her for a day…before she moved to VEGAS! Lol.

Did a San Diego girls trip, and well, it was a blast. Had an audition down there in the am, then partied all day and drove back that night.

Tonight I am going out to the Bike with Maria Ho….seriously - i fully expect to pull a 24 hour session with her….that girl just doesn’t stop.

Next week I have multiple meetings to pitch the poker show I had written awhile back, so very excited about that. One huge company in particular, I will tell you more once it starts progressing further.
Hope you all have a great weekend and…..

Kick ass at the Tables,

XOXO,

Christina

SO,

It is Wednesday and I am still not normal. And by not normal, I mean F!cked up!

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Let’s put it this way, between three girls going to Vegas on last Thursday, and returning Monday - not one of us has our voice. We all partied so hard, (and I actually worked unlike my girlfriends hahaha) that we all lost our voice. Maria Ho is telling me that I should expose myself to second hand smoke much more because she likes my new “phone sex voice” lol.

I guess the only place to start is at the very beginning. I was supposed to work in Vegas for BSN (bsnonline.net) at the Mr. Olympia, a fitness show, signing pictures at their booth all day Friday and Saturday.

I convinced my girlfriends Nicole (an actress) and Maria Ho to come stay with me in my room and chill while I worked during the day, and go out with me to all of the parties I was hosting all night. It didn’t take much convincing. Maria Ho and I began drinking immediately when we arrived to Burbank airport en route to Vegas - we had fruit and mimosas for breakfast! Once we arrived, it was crazy. We had such a blast, the parties were off the hook, we got ready together every night just being girls, and literally did a tour of every nightclub in Vegas I swear to God.

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The night I hosted the kick off party at the BANK at the Bellagio, several of my poker player friends came out to support me and I wanted to thank them: Matt Graham, Erick Lindgren, Justin Bonomo, and of course Miss Lacey Jones. Maria and Nicole went with me, and all of the fitness people were there of course as well. I stayed out till 4, then crashed…having to get up the next morning at 7 to work the booth.

I remember on Friday after I had been on my feet at the booth for BSN all day, I got back to the room and Maria and Nicole were laying in each of the beds in robes, with two bottles of wine, and held a glass out for me asking me “Honey how was work!”. I laughed so hard I almost fell down. What could be better than that? Having good friends enjoy the ride with you, and making it so much better along the way!

The last night there, we went to the Hard Rock. We had gotten a table at Body English, just a group of girls, which you would have thought no one had ever seen before. We actually had a few guys ask us where the dudes were. Like it was unfathomable that girls went out and got their own tables!!! While we were there we checked out the new poker room at the Hard Rock. It was so pretty and we definitely plan on playing more there when we go back to Vegas in October for the series of tournaments at the Caesar’s and the Bellagio.

Sunday night at the Hard Rock, we encountered first hand a poker player’s worst nightmare: BLACKJACK! The downfall of half the poker players I know, lol. We were just annihilated. Thank God we weren’t gambling much because we were running so bad. Every time we had a 20, the dealer would flip over 21. You know how that goes sometimes.

Anyways, on to the best part of the blog! That night we made a hilarious video before meeting up with the other girls being stupid while we were getting ready - and I have included it for your enjoyment here: Not saying who, but that night we partied so hard, that one of the girls in the group actually had to be wheeled out of the Hard Rock in a wheelchair because she had gotten so messed up. We made a video of that as well, but to protect her identity - and just because it is embarrassing - I won’t be including that one. We all agreed after the entire fiasco the next day once she had woken up that it was by far the best trip to Vegas any of us had ever had.

Stay Tuned for More Shenanagins,
Until Next Time,
Christina Lindley

As I am writing this blog, I can honestly guess that the vast majority of you are either still awake from last night playing online, or sleeping soundly - for several more hours to come. I am in LA, and just got home from a 4 mile run at UCLA with one of my best girlfriends. We woke before the sun did at 6 am to go run. Why? Not really sure. I assume we are somewhat insane.  I am a relative newcomer to poker, (six months into playing), and I can honestly say that since I began my poker career, so to speak, I have been a vampire sleeping until noon and staying up playing live and online as late as 6 am. This is the first time in six months I have been up before the sun was. Who am I? You are probably wondering. A few people might have met or played with me at Legends, or the WSOP this year, but like I said I have been playing poker for six months - and I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is Christina Lindley. I am an actress, and model.

This year during the writers strike, then actors strike, I was completely out of work because of the dead industry, and I discovered poker. Not only did I discover it, I fell in love. I threw myself into the world. I read nothing but poker books, became friends with a bunch of poker players through this show I had written about poker, went to the World Series, secured a backer to play on the tournament trail full time, and began coaching 24/7 with anyone who knew more about holdem than I did.

The next thing I knew, I cashed in the Johnny Chan ALL In Tournament at the WSOP, then at the Mariani Buss Invitational, then I won a seat a mega-satellite into the Main Event at Legends and lasted until the end of day two, in what was about my tenth tournament ever. I booked and shot the Best Damn Poker Challenge, which is an entire different story, was named on Gambling911’s top pros to watch of 2008…. all of this was insane to me. I began playing poker because I was so passionate about it when I found it, and it has opened up an entire new world to me. The people who play poker are incredibly different than the people I have been around in the entertainment imdustry for the last ten years. They are real. They are down to earth. They do what they say. It’s so funny to me when I watch these pro poker players who have become my friends make prop bets with nothing in writing, just a handshake. And they ALWAYS come through. They are as good as their word. It has been incredibly refreshing and hilarious to me at the same time that people who are professional gamblers, are more honorable and real than possibly any of the other professionals I have met or worked with in my past.

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Anyways, two days ago something even more amazing happened. I shot for the cover of BLUFF MAGAZINE. They shot me along with my really good friend poker hottie Lacey Jones for the November issue of 2008 cover. Why? Well, they liked the fact that I was such a relative newcomer and had thrown myself in full force. They said they liked my drive, my passion, and my showing so far as an up and coming poker pro. Apparently, they saw great things in my future for poker. I was incredibly flattered and honored at the same time. BLUFF also heard about the fact that a group of girls had banned together and formed a team so to speak. That they were traveling together, taking pieces of each other, encouraging and talking shop, hanging out and coaching all the time. That is a group of girls including myself. When I met Lacey this year at the WSOP we bonded immediately. I recognized right away that women didn’t really seem to hang out and have comraderie the way the young male players did. They were more competitive with each other, as opposed to helping each other. I found that very strange, and once Lacey and I began hanging out we slowly added a few girls to our group, and then the fun really began. Esther Taylor “ETAY”, Maria Ho, Joy Miller, and a few others to say the least.

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Back to the shoot. So I drove from LA, because I had to be back the next day (today) to shoot a comedy segment for the Craig Ferguson comedy dvd, which apparently involves wild animals. I just got the call sheet today, and am NERVOUS! But the BLUFF shoot was at a club called LAVO at the Palazzo, and it was GORGEOUS! I show up with Lacey to see Matt Parvis, or “Marvis” as we like to call him, and the crew. I look at the wardrobe, and get this - there is none. That is right. All they brought was LINGERIE. Lacey and I immediately broke out a bottle of champagne. Let’s face it, if we were going to be shooting half naked the entire day, during the day, at a club in front of the entire staff there and our crew, we really couldn’t be stone cold sober, lol. So a few sips later, we were on our way. We shot several different outfits, matching and coordinating lingerie. We even shot a few pillow fight scenes, and with my comedy background, I thought it was hilarious to be somewhat making fun of ourselves and our “image”. The shoot was so fun, and I loved the teaser pics that we were emailed…which I am including in the blog for you to see.

Newby from RAWVEGAS.TV came and shot the entire shoot, tons of video, which he will be putting on their website two weeks prior to the NOV 1st release of the magazine. Should be lots of fun. I am nervous to see what video footage he shot exactly - u know guys, lol!!!!!

Well, thats all for now, off to take a nap - I am exhausted and have to do God knows what tonight at the Craig Ferguson shoot with wild animals so I’ll need my sleep. Anything for the sake of comedy I suppose……

Cheers,
Christina Lindley