2018 Nov 12 | Art at the Rendon, Mia La Maven poker tournament

Chislic for dinner.

Ogii chowing down on the pumpkin seeds we baked.

Watching The Waterboy on its 20th annivesary.

Dinner at Grower's Pub.

Big pumpkin.

It's an older, more upscale atmosphere.

Nice steaks.

Aw, my new tie is already falling apart.

Driving to LA. I love this single tree all by itself on this curve.

Finger Twister.

There's a lot of smoke in Santa Monica from the fire in Malibu.

Ogii helping out on the accounting at her old job a bit.

Massages.

The last time I got a decent haircut at Sport Clips; this time I got a horrible one.

At the Del Amo mall so Ogii and her friend can have lunch and chat. It's a huge mall across multiple streets.

An early preview of some Nintendo games you can play.

Including Super Smash Bros Ultimate.

It seemed like there were only full-service restaurants, so I had lunch at a Mexican place while watching college football.

While wandering around the mall I found the food court with the cheap restaurants. It was all the way across the street, though.

Ogii used to work at an Aahs! in LA years ago.

An escape room in the mall.

Cloudy sunset from the fires.

This is a hilarious Christmas sweater. It even has a pocket in front to hold your beer.

Ogii shopping.

Ooh, what a sale, down to $300 from $1190. Still a lot for a dress.

That evening we went to Art at the Rendon.

There were various clips playing on the walls like we were looking into windows.

More on this side.

Also a little food area.

Some more.

People were in various rooms in the building acting out little plays.

A dress maker.

A woman with a baby.

A boxer.

A writer.

Drag queens prepping.

Johnny White was a fan favorite; everyone said how funny he was when they came out.

It was really packed but people moved through the rooms fairly quickly.

Someone napping?

An area between the two sides where you could look in from the outside windows.

Pretty bare bones.

Many people watching.

Painting a model.

A couple chatting.

A guy with a bird.

Talking to the viewers outside.

Asian couple.

Just hanging out.

Looking down the middle from the other side.

A creepy closed door.

Playing music.

Cooking.

A room covered in money.

Fake money, though.

Woman on a bed.

Two guys playing music.

A detective.

This guy was walking around drawing stuff.

A giant bird house from sticks.

A medium.

A woman alone.

A creepy lady by a window, although this wasn't in a room, so I'm not sure if she was part of the act.

A sleeping man.

A couple talking.

A couple singing opera to each other.

Out front.

To the bar.

Also packed.

Some live music.

A back room.

A lot of people attended.

I wonder where this pipe from the fire hydrant goes?

Watching a movie on TV in the hotel.

A nice little patio area.

They were full from people staying in town to get away from the Malibu fires.

Shopping some more. Kind of neat jeans, but the pockets are too small.

These look dirty already; I'd be constantly trying to brush them off.

Plus they're still expensive.

Pretty bad accident involving multiple cars.

Lucky kid has a geometric dome climber in his yard; I used to love those on the playground.

To Beverly Hills for the Mia La Maven charity poker tournament.

It benefitted the UCLA children's hospital.

And Wags and Walks animal rescue.

Puppies to play with.

Free beer.

And mixed drinks.

Interviews.

A DJ.

A silent DJ.

Some TVs for the football games.

Samples.

More samples.

A silent auction.

That's a bit out of our range.

As is that.

A buy-in to a Live at the Bike game.

Back outside to grab some food.

Joey Ingram, a poker pro, talking to Israeli Ron, who plays on Live at the Bike.

Massage.

Ogii petting a dog.

Tacos.

Gil the Plumber from Live at the Bike grabbing some food.

Ogii ready to eat.

One problem: we didn't sign in early, so even though we paid ahead of time, we had to put our names down on a waitlist. I was pretty annoyed because usually that means you have to wait around an hour or so to even play or longer, and charity poker tournaments go really fast, so we'd miss a lot of playing. We decided to wait around a bit and see what happens.

John Cynn, the winner of the 2018 World Series of Poker main event.

We got a picture with him.

Expensive shoes.

They were putting friends of the professional players before us on the waitlist; that's really not cool.

It was pretty confusing; people on the waitlist were just sitting down at open chairs instead of waiting in line.

John Cynn went all in.

And showed his hand, which isn't very good.

However, over half of the attendees weren't poker players, they were just there for the charities, so they had no idea what a good hand is. This woman was the only one left to maybe call, but she didn't know if she should.

She decided to, and it was a good idea because she had AT, a much better hand.

She won and the photographer gave her a high five.

Ogii talked to the announcer for the event and managed to get us some seats. It worked out well for her because she was at the featured table with some of the pros and most well-known players.

She got a hat.

And John Cynn signed it.

I got sat at the table next to it, although there weren't any pros there. There were a lot of fun amateurs, though, including the stunt double for Richard Gere and Dustin Hoffman.

Ed Sidaros in the black t-shirt bought extra chips for everyone at our table. The event honors his daughter Mia, who died at age 17 to a rare bone cancer, which is why the event benefits UCLA children's hospital.

Jack Steven, in white, organized the tournament; he was Mia's uncle.

I got it all with with QQ against this woman who also thankfully had QQ and not AA or KK, so we split the pot.

She was also really into the football game; she kept running over and watching it.

We got a picture with Bruce Buffer.

Right before he made an announcement about the tournament.

John Cynn is all in again.

And this time he got knocked out permanantly.

A big hand. Three people were all-in in front of me and I had KJ suited. I thought it was likely I was at least somewhat behind, but it's a pretty good hand. Also, I had way more chips than any of them, so if I lost, I was still OK, and if I won, I'd have a huge stack. Unfortunately I lost to the guy with AQ.

The very next hand I had AQ and we again got it all in. He had AQ again as well, but I got really lucky and made a flush on the river to knock him out.

Lots of chips now.

These two women and their friend (behind the dealer in this picture) were really fun to play with. The two women barely knew what they were doing and the woman right next to me kept showing me her cards and asking me what she should do. I kept politely telling her she shouldn't show me her cards when I was in a hand as well. In a real tournament they wouldn't allow that at all, but since it was a charity tournament, most people were a little more relaxed about it, but eventually a good player at our table whined about it and she stopped.

The other woman took a lot of my chips at one point, too. I had top pair and bet it on the flop and turn and she kept calling. I figured I'd just check the river because I didn't want to take all of her chips and thankfully I did because she happened to make a straight.

Dragging in more chips.

Can't watch.

Winner!

I made it to the final table. All of the non-poker players were knocked out by now and it was only fairly good players left.

I was seated beside two really good players who play high stakes on Live at the Bike, but we were joking around a lot and having fun instead of being too serious.

OK, sometimes during big hands we were a bit more serious.

She's pretty excited she won.

Ogii probably telling me to not be stupid.

Seven players left.

I was fairly low in chips and had AJ, so I went all in. The woman beside me called with A6, so I was 70% to win, but she hit her 6 and knocked me out in seventh place.

I got a goody bag for making the final table. This picture also shows the t-shirt Ogii bought me.

Most of the people had left by now, but a few people hung around to watch it end.

There was also a cash game going, but it was way too high of stakes for us; it was mostly the Live at the Bike players who bring $50,000 to play with.

Down to three players now. Interesting, the man and woman sitting across from each other were husband and wife and we had played with them at a few other home tournaments.

The final hand.