Posted by Tom Dwan | Filed under Poker
So I played bay101 monday. Made a ton of crossbooks then busted out so that was fun. I was pretty tired so I went back and crashed, then got a limo to napa early in the morning w/ Erica. A little sidenote here; I’ve always been fine drinking any non-terrible beer or vodka, but when it comes to some alcohol- namely red wine and tequila, im pretty spoiled. I drank white wine a bit in college, and would get pinot gritio santa margherita almost everytime… its an awesome wine thats only about 25-30$ if I remember right in stores. When I started drinking red’s though, it was usually at a dinner when poker friends would order them, and end up getting bottles which were 200ish or more. So even though I knew nothing about red wine (and wasn’t a big fan of the moderate ones i’d had in college), when I started drinking it more often I was pretty spoiled. This led to where I’m at now- which is barely knowing the names of wines I like, yet only wanting to drink really good wines. That would generally be a tough person to satisfy, except when I happen to live in Vegas, or even easier, if I’m in napa.
So yesterday, we got here about noon, and had enough time to hit a few wineries. The first one we stopped at, Far Niente had an awesome chardonnay for about 200 from the vineyard (wines are somewhere between 50-75% the cost at the vineyard as a liquor store, and 2-3x or so marked up from liquor store to restaurant) which Bellagio carries, and then went to Opus One which was just super awesome (400ish/bottle). 2005 was apparently a very good year for napa wines, and opus had an 04, 05 and 06 to taste. Surprisingly the 05 wasn’t too good at all, the 06 was very good, and the 04 was amazing- so we got a ton of these. I dont really know how to describe wine so I just say if its good or not. Next stop was Cakebread, which are more moderately priced wines, but they had a zinfandel and a syrah which were pretty solid for about 50$ each, and 2 100$ish cab bottles which were super good, and we got a few of those. Then we went to stirling which was definitely my least favorite of the wineries, until right at the end when the wine taster girl brought 2 cabs which were pretty solid and we bought those.
I kept trying to workout getting a reservation at french laundry, which is supposed to be one of the best restaurants in the country, but I failed miserably. We stayed at Auberge de Soleil, which seems pretty cool, although after all the wine exploring seemed like a tough task, so i’ll need to do that in a few hours after a short session and a massage. Had an awesome dinner and an amazing bottle of wine to go with it at the restaurant here. John Juanda had gotten a super awesome bottle while we were playing the 1k2kplo, 5k10k triple draw game over the summer, and I was pretty sure it was from napa. Apparently chateau petrus isn’t in napa-, but even thouhg I couldnt go to the winery, they had a bottle at our hotel’s restaurant, so that was awesome.
I apparently missed a ton of action, with isildur winning a few million the last few days, I’m gonna play for 1hr or so now before my massage, but it probably will be a day until we get a solid session going. Hopefully this time around it ends a bit better for me than our last few confrontations on the tables.
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danyc Says:
March 10th, 2010 at 4:55 pmFirst! Gl Tom cant wait for the epic Isildur battles to come
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Vanessa Says:
March 10th, 2010 at 5:18 pmI’m pretty much a novice with wine, too, but next time I go to the store, I think I’ll try that pinot you mentioned as my budget is tight. You described it well enough, haha! May I just say you are an amazing player, I just started watching and playing (with intent to improve, at least) recently and I always enjoy watching you! And yeah, I guess I kinda have a crush, lol. Anyway, Good luck in the challenge, hopefully someday I’ll get the chance to play and/or learn from you!
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triu Says:
March 10th, 2010 at 6:25 pmhaha, i like the stuff about your red-wine safari. im not much of a fan either, but I just got a new roomate in my apartment in vienna and we had 2 bottles the other day from burgenland ^^ they were pretty amazing, but the guy that he got em from is sold out so we’re still searching.
good luck@the tables, im off to bed -
Max Says:
March 10th, 2010 at 6:49 pmCongrats on the one million score!
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Isildur1 Says:
March 10th, 2010 at 7:55 pmLIFE TILT!!!!!!!!
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erik Says:
March 10th, 2010 at 8:01 pmfrench laundry is not only one of the best restaurants in the country, it was the #1 rated restaurant in the world in the early 2000’s.
auberge is a nice place. beautiful view.
Opus is a bit overrated, but you might enjoy: Quintessa (great tour)
Chateau Montelena (this was the first wine to beat out the french in the world tastings and put Napa on the map in the late 70’s early 80’s)and Pride Mountain Vineyard.
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Martin Says:
March 10th, 2010 at 9:27 pmLooks like it went much better. Nice job crushing him for $960k. I hope you break him in the coming weeks.
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TheGusPair Says:
March 11th, 2010 at 12:46 am“To give myself some motivation I’ve decided that for the rest of this year I’ll donate 10k to haiti or some similar cause any month that i don’t write at least 3.”
+10k to charity for Feb. Might need to wind it up a bit to reeeeally motivate.
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AlexK Says:
March 11th, 2010 at 2:54 amnope Chateau Petrus isnt in napa hehe. The petrus domain is located in Pomerol, near Bordeaux in south-western France. Its one of the most famous and best rated wine around. For this one 2005 is supposedly a very good year, and a single bottle costs several thousand dollars. If you buy some, you should keep most of it for a few more years, and make sure you stock it in the right conditions, otherwise it would be a terrible waste. This stuff is rare and hard to get, the best restaurants buy it before its even made.
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Morty Says:
March 11th, 2010 at 5:00 amIt certainly did went a lot better vs Isildur1 yesterday, GG!
and with cabs, you mean cabernet sauvignon’s right?
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bs123 Says:
March 11th, 2010 at 6:13 amnice domination, hope he still has more for a big session tomorrow
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Morty Says:
March 11th, 2010 at 10:06 amIt certainly did end a lot better vs Isildur1 yesterday, gg!
With cabs you mean cabernet sauvignon right?
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Marie Pavlo Says:
March 11th, 2010 at 7:17 pmI really enjoy what you blog about here, very insightful and smart. One issue though, I’m running Firefox on Debian and parts of your content are a little broken. I know it’s not a popular setup, but it’s still something to keep an eye on. Just giving you a heads up.
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Brian Says:
March 12th, 2010 at 11:05 amTom. If you’re heading back to Napa anytime soon, go check out a smaller winery called “Failla” (Fay-la). They have a Syrah that will permanently change your mind on Red wines! They’re tucked back in the Mountains over by Mumm’s. They finished their natural caves, carved in the mountain, about 2yrs ago now, amazing to see!! Ask for Kathy Berez.
GL at the tables Tom!!
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Raffe Says:
March 12th, 2010 at 10:44 pmThe wineries must be having a ball when you come around. You are behaving like the kid you are.
Great poker player, real-life donk. -
Elanie Says:
March 16th, 2010 at 5:26 amI’m a fan and enjoy watching how you play poker whether you win or lose a hand. You just amaze me. Thanks for letting us into your world and getting to know you even just a little bit. You bring a great game to the table, keep it up! Oh, I’d like to buy a fulltilt t-shirt with your name and image on it (for example: “Team Dwan”)? One more thing, don’t listen to these negative people. You’re young, be young, as long as you’re helping people, love your family, and not hurting anyone…you’re in the right track. Good luck with everything.
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acem Says:
May 13th, 2010 at 8:40 amHey Tom if you are in Las Vegas full time you should check out the UNLV Old World Wines course that is taught by Carmer. It is at the Freakin’ Frog’s Whiskey Attic. You can take it over the summer and you will get to taste 10-15 wines a day. You will learn a ton about wine and find out what you really like. The professor is a master somelier and was Steve Wynn’s first somelier. Email me if you want to know more.
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Get Free Car Insurance Quote Says:
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