My First Blog, Annette_15's first Live Session in the U.S.

I decided it was finally time to write a first blog post for PokerNews. I mean, I have been with the company now for almost three months -- I think it's long overdue. Many of you may know me from my time with Bluff Magazine, or maybe many of you are thinking "who the heck is this guy?" Well, I'm proud to be the Editor-in-Chief here at PokerNews, and I'll fill you in on some of the more exciting things I'm up to from time to time.

This weekend I met up with Dustin (Poker Royalty Agent), Elaine (one of our editors), F-Train (one of our live reporters) and Annette_15 (poker superstar). We had drinks at the Bellagio before grabbing Jason Somerville after he finished up his day at the WPT 15K event and headed to Yellowtail. The plan -- after eating pop-rock spicy crab rolls of course -- was to get a private $1/$2 no-limit game going. It would be Annette's first live session in the states, since her wire for the WPT event did not make it in time for her to register. This idea sounded fantastic at first, but looking back, I'm not sure where the logic was. We should have made her play with a blindfold or something.

The Bellagio turned down our request, which meant it was off to the Hard Rock. The Hard Rock will always accommodate private games by the way, whether you're with a World Series of Poker champion or not, and they were quick to set us up in the back of the room. We played $1/$2 with a mandatory $4 button straddle and $5 to anyone who wins with the ol' 7-2.

Elaine, who I'd of thought would be the most unlikely to get tricky quickly went to work with the 7-2 and raised it up preflop and bet the flop and turn on a (suits are probably ALL WRONG). Dustin folded, and Elaine proudly whipped over the hammer. Whoa, nice hand -- ship that lady $5.

Unfortunately for me, I spent most of the session donating money. I made a silly bluff with bottom pair on a draw-heavy board that got there and although I got the lovely Annette_15 to lay down her hand, ol' F-Train pulled the "oh what to do, what to do" routine before moving all-in. Giant fail for Parvito there. Hard Rock then opened the game up to the public and on my straddle I bumped the action up to $15 with . The flop came x and a dude who said he was headed back to Afghanistan in a few days bet $20, I made it $60 and he moved in for maybe $30 more. I called and missed my flush draw, his was good enough to take the pot.

I lost yet another pot on a jack-high board with three clubs. I should have raised F-train on the turn here but thought my hand was in really good shape, so I decided to check and hope he bet the river. A fourth club landed and he checked to me. I bet $15, and I think he made it like $40 straight. Ugg. What a donkey I am. He let me pick one card before deciding what to do, I picked the . Awesome (in a not really awesome way). I called, and he, of course, had the .

A few hands later, finding myself short-stacked, I came over the top of Annette's initial raise with ace-queen off-suit. She slid enough chips to put me all-in and I called. We showed each other one card. I showed my queen and she showed a king, which meant there was zero chance I was ahead unless she was getting loosey-goosey on me with like K-Q, or the Ralph Perry (K-J). The board bricked out and I showed my ace. Annette than decided to take her sweet time peeling ever so slowly an ace of her own. Nice slow roll Scandi, nice slow roll.

I managed to battle back a little, winning some money off the terrible play from those not in our actual group, but all in all, it was a losing session. It was, however, a great night and a ton of fun hanging out with a great group of people. I'm sure playing against such a tough opponent like myself really is going to prepare Annette for her first Poker After Dark appearance. Please Annette, just do me one favor. Use your new found slow-roll skills on Hellmuth. If you do -- all will be forgiven.