WSOP
2003 Day 12
Who Would Like the Chips this Time?
Another
lazy day. I got up to set the clock up,
got a little breakfast, did some work
in my room in the afternoon, then watched
a little of the final table, much noisier
than yesterday with Mike Matusow working
the crowd.
Then
I decided to play a one table satellite.
When it started off it was going to be
a $175 No Limit, but someone suggested
we kick it up to $225 as we'd get 800
chips instead of 600, we were all fine
with that, so we played $225. This was
one of the longest satellites ever, the
dealer was on his first day, well I'll
give him the benefit of the doubt and
assume that he was, first was the five
minutes to figure out the egg timer, then
the oh so slow dealing, then disputes
of some kind on every other hand, then
the corrections to every other pot; the
dealer understood the concept of pushing
the pot when the hand was over, it just
wasn't clear to him that this wasn't a
random procedure and that the pot should
actually go to the player who won. Then
we had a dispute when someone announced
"raise", put in 50, which was 50 less
than the previous bet, then shoved in.
Someone argued that was illegal, a wrong
decision was made that he could only raise
the minimum (but kudos to the floorman
who later came over to apologize after
realizing the all-in raise was legit).
The whole game was like this, there were
too many table captains and a dealer who
didn't know what to do, so hands were
taking forever. Once the table captains
were gone it was actually pretty fun,
by now we'd spent more time with each
other than most men spend with their wives
and we had all bonded into a Kumbaya type
group.
We finally got down to 4, but the blinds
were up to 200-400. I had been down to
300 earlier but had made some moves and
got back into the fight, then we were
down to three and almost made a deal.
That didn't work so then I went on a bully
rush and had most of the chips. Then we
were down to two and the other guy was
almost all-in. I offered him $300 to end
it, but he wanted $500 so we played on.
He doubled up twice, yuck, now I only
had him 3-2. Then the blinds went to an
unheard of 500-1000 (there's only 8000
on the table!), I pushed hard and got
the bigger lead back. Then he limped,
and I raised all-in with AJs, he thought
for a while, was pretty committed, and
called with 84o. 8xx flop, AIYAH! If he
wins this he has 3/4 of the chips. The
planets aligned, a J fell on the river
and it's all over, $2,100, oh yeah! So
now I'm even for the trip even after playing
3 main events and 3 nighttime's, which
is great because I now have enough budget
to play the limit and pot limit holdems
that I wasn't sure about.
I
got it wrong yesterday about the super
satellite satellites, it's $50, two winners
get a $225 seat, have to play in the next
available super. I have heard that the
double shoot-outs may be ending soon (May
1), don't know if that's official or a
rumor.
As
much as I like to give Matt Savage a hard
time, he really does do a fantastic job
as tournament director, and of course
Binion's thinks so too. They have just
announced the "Benny Binion Memorial Award"
(well they originally named it the "Poker
Room Managers Hall of Fame", but then
renamed it) to honor WSOP tournament directors,
Matt is the inaugural inductee. As if
his head wasn't big enough already.
Didn't
eat all day, so Snack Bar for a burger
(very good burgers, about $3), too tired
to play the 11 p.m., off to bed a winner,
it's been a fun trip so far.
Paul Westley
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