World
Series of Poker T+23,24
This
has been a fun filled last two days. I
won't try to get any of it in chronological
order, I seem to be hopeless at that,
but I will randomly throw in things like
'yesterday' and 'today' just for heck
of it, so here goes...
First
of all, it's 2:15 am and I'm going to
try to be asleep by 3am as I am definitely
playing the 1.5K limit holdem tomorrow,
I've even already signed up so I don't
chicken out. This will be the last event
I play (unless I play a super sat for
the 10K) so I have purposely saved my
bracelet win for this one to keep the
suspense alive. I have my strategy in
place, I will be showing up six hours
late then raising every hand for the next
hour.
Yesterday
I split first place (a 5 way deal) in
an Orleans limit holdem, $1500 for that,
(JP Massar was to my left, he chopped
third place with the other three). I've
played 3 events at Orleans; lost one,
chopped first yesterday, and came second
in another, I'm very happy with those
results as it has helped me to stay almost
even for the whole trip. I even chopped
a satellite yesterday and today so I'm
feeling fairly hopeful that I at least
have a shot in today's event.
I
haven't seen mention yet of yesterday's
limit holdem shootout event, and no wonder,
it ended at SEVEN A.M.!!! Matt wanted
it to be a one day event as it was being
played alongside the ladies' event and
the final table can only hold so many
people at once, but none of us thought
it would turn into the marathon it became.
One problem was there was so much play
left with blinds at 100-200 and six gazillion
chips in play at 2 a.m. It got down to
three and one refused to end play for
the day. By 4 am one of the older guys
was literally falling asleep at the table
and again Matt tried to end it for the
night in fairness to him, but again one
wanted to play on. Then they made a deal,
did I say a deal, I meant they committed
second degree robbery. The short chipped
older guy just wanted out, he ended up
with a deal that gave him just 5K more
than his 29K third place, with a chance
of 10K more for the winner, that meant
if he won he would have 10K less than
he would have got for second. Second place
guy got 5K more than second place, first
place guy (big chip leader) gave up just
20K (5 + 5 + 10) so already had 76K locked
up with a chance of another 10K. So then
they played on and short chip guy tried
to go bust, except he kept winning and
was soon about even with the other two.
The chip leader almost went broke but
came back. Eventually the older guy went
bust, the other two played on, and they
ended in the order of their original deal.
If you've ever wondered what would happen
if a gold bracelet fell in the woods and
there was nobody there to hear it, the
answer is probably that it doesn't make
a sound; this had to be the most anticlimactic
gold bracelet win there ever was, nobody
but the two of them cared (and even that
I'm not sure about), everyone just wanted
to go home. Maybe we were all punch drunk
at 7am but one of the crowd (where three's
a crowd) of spectators had us in hysterics
with his story (which he claims was true)
about one of the cocktail waitresses.
He said he ordered coffee no cream, she
she they didn't have cream, only milk,
so would he like coffee no milk instead.
Tonight
was the Phil Hellmuth vs. Tom McEvoy match.
Phil was pretty relaxed (how relaxed?
well he found time to lay on the floor
to do some yoga) and the game was very
cordial and quite boring for the first
hour. Then they moved to the final table
after the ladies' event finished and it
got a bit more interesting. Neither was
playing super aggressive, they were both
waiting for that perfect hand, but then
Tom made a bad mistake when he bluffed
on the scary river when it came Q85,9,J.
The problem was he didn't bet enough and
Phil didn't take a millisecond to call
with the Q8 he had flopped. Q3 for Tom
and it was a big chip swing. Tom never
recovered and they soon got it all in
before the flop with AQ for Tom, JJ for
Phil, no help for Tom and Phil goes on
to the final, playing the winner of the
yet to be played Diego vs. Johnny match
(Johnny is a chip leader in today's 5K
Omaha high pot limit).
For
those of you under the misapprehension
that the world series is all about poker,
remember there was Hearts, there was Gin,
and of course there is the lesser known
Roshambo and Donkey Kong...
Perry
Friedman is the current World Roshambo
Champion (rock, paper scissors to us peons).
Perry has my number and beats me most
of the time, but I can pulverize him at
written Roshambo (where we write down
our moves 5 at a time), I obviously have
a tell and will be working on that. Tonight
I watched two masters of the game, Perry
vs. Phil Ivey, Phil got ahead 10-0 but
Perry eventually evened it up.
OK,
this one is really bizarre, Kathy Liebert
swapped a small amount with Alan Cunningham
in the holdem shootout (swapping is when
they both agree to pay the other one a
very small percentage of anything they
win, it's done all the time for fun by
friends, they don't swap enough to influence
their play against each other). Well Alan
placed at the final table so normally
Kathy would get some money, except she
doesn't, the deal was that they will play
Donkey Kong (the original); if Kathy wins
she gets the money, if Alan wins he doesn't
have to pay. Both claim to be World Donkey
Kong champions, I may have the exclusive
on reporting this match.
There
was a fascinating final table of the super
satellite tonight. Barry Shulman was there
with Diego, they were sweating Barry's
son Jeff (aptly nicknamed 'happy') who
played perfectly and got a seat, along
with Jack Arama (a famous English player)
and Nani Dollison. An inexperienced tournament
player was huge chip leader, he could
literally have gone to bed and got one
of the five seats, but he kept getting
involved in hands and really made for
some interesting scenarios. I won't go
into detail because Barry is thinking
of writing up the whole thing, it will
be a 'how not to play a tournament' article.
Oops.
it's 3:20, IGSN...
Paul
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