WSOP
2003 Days 32, 33 & 34:
Dances With Wolves
This
report is about the ultimate highs and
ultimate lows of poker. The high was when
I won my super satellite the day before
the big dance, it was the 4 p.m. one,
320 players, 15 seats being given away.
I could have won the seat about an hour
before everyone else did when I laid down
KK before the flop after doing my David
Chiu impersonation. I'd better leave impersonations
to the trained professionals, the kings
would have won and I could have gone to
bed. Instead I still had a very decent
stack still intact and made my only risky
move with 20 left with QQ, that one held
up against 66 and now I was again almost
guaranteed a seat having the second biggest
stack. A few minutes later we were down
to 16. 16th. gets $200, the rest get a
$10,000 seat plus $400. A short stack
proposed a deal. I wasn't too interested
but there again the blinds were high so
anything could happen, I sat back while
the 8 short stacks went into a huddle
for almost 15 minutes. When they emerged
the deal was that all the big stacks would
give up $200 (except the biggest stack
who refused), all the short stacks would
add between $400 and $800 each to make
a 16th. seat. Fine with me, I'm playing
in the big one!
Day
one I hovered around 7,000 for most of
the day, getting as low as 3,000 and as
high as 11,000, ending the day at 7,450.
I had a good table mix but it included
some very tough players including Jim
Miller, Diego Cordovez and Adam Shoenfeld.
Still, I played very well, didn't make
any major mistakes, and knew on Day 2
I'd need to make some moves to get back
in the game. What I hadn't realized is
that we redraw for seats each day, so
after literally just having gone through
the blinds, I could end up doing it all
again. My new table was great, and I got
the button, justice is served! I started
right off with an over the top raise and
now had 9,000. Next hand I got KK, my
first big hand the whole tournament (I
had had QQ the day before, limped with
it and had to give it up on the flop).
I doubled up against AK and had 20K! A
couple of hands later I got KK again and
now had my high point of 22K, I was in
good shape with an about average stack.
Then our table broke, not what I was expecting
as it it should have been one of the last
to go, but they needed the space it occupied
to rearrange the room for the final table
area. At my new table was Dan Heimiller
on my right, and to his right a player
I didn't know, he had almost 60K. First
hand after I sit down he raises, Dan reraises,
and he moves in. Dan folds, he shows 98o!
Next hand he raises, Dan reraises, he
calls. He checks the A7x flop, Dan bets
10K, he calls. He checks the turn, Dan
bets 20K, he calls. They check the river,
Dan wins with AQ, the other guy has K7,
he'd called two huge bets with second
pair, he'd called Dan's pre-flop reraise
with K7o. What does this have to do with
anything you may ask, well, it's all part
of the circumstances leading up to my
demise.
I'd tried a couple of steals, both had
failed, plus the blinds and antes were
eating away at my stack, I was down to
15K. The previous hand I'd raised with
A5s, got reraised by a rock and gave it
up. Next hand I got A9s. I decided to
try limping (for 400), I thought I'd see
if I could get a family pot going and
try to get lucky. Instead it got folded
around to the very solid small blind,
she limped. Then it was up to the madman
I described above, he raised 800 more.
I decided he could have almost anything
so I called. Just as I did his head spun
around, not completely like in The Exorcist,
but enough that he was genuinely surprised
to see me in the hand, he even made an
'Oh' noise, he hadn't realized that I'd
limped in. Well that sealed my fate, I
decided he was just trying to steal from
the small blind so now I really didn't
put him on a hand. Small blind folded,
the flop was AA5, we both checked. Blank
on the turn, he bet 3,000, I had 14,000
left. I still didn't believe him, I figured
he could have anything, including a 5,
or maybe a big pair, or maybe a total
bluff. I moved in figuring he was likely
to call with a much weaker hand, he called
in an instant with AJ. K on the river,
and ighn. I did so many things wrong in
this hand, the first of course was even
being there with A9, the second was calling
his pre-flop raise, the third was not
hearing the alarm bells when he checked
the flop, and the fourth was not doing
something like either folding or calling
on the turn. If I did a reluctant call
he might have only bet 3,000 again on
the river, I could have called that and
still had 8,000 left, instead I'd sealed
my own fate. I had played my best ever
poker up until that hand, then with one
dumb mistake it was all over.
My
story is not unique of course, there are
dazed faces wandering all around Binion's
right now, all either having had a bad
beat or having made a bad play, it's not
much consolation. But what a thrill to
even be there, for my short stay it was
like being a bit part actor in a blockbuster
movie, the WSOP 10K is the ultimate poker
high. This was my second big one, I'm
addicted now and will be trying to get
a seat again next year.
Today
is the seniors 1K event at the Orleans
at 6 p.m., they are having satellites
right now so I'm heading over there to
try that. Maybe I'll have better luck
against people who usually go to bed at
8 p.m.
Paul Westley
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