UWSWSOP Day 2
spies
Rio is already coming unraveled. It isn't hard to understand,
though. Poker can do that to you. It unravels you, wears you down,
chews you up and spits you out.
The flip side is also true, of course. Poker can also lift you up, make
you feel like you're invincible, like you're cool as hell, like
you're a winner, even like you're a genius. That's what keeps us
coming back for more and more abuse, we want to get back that feeling
of victory, of having performed flawless and defeated your opponent.
For me, those feelings are fewer and farther between. So far on this
trip I've booked abou $1500 in losses in tournament entries without a
single respectable showing. It seems impossible to get started with
all of this. And this feeling of failure is compounded by the intense
nervousness I feel about playing in Friday's WSOP event.
Tonight as I busted out of the second chance tournament, I felt a wave
of dread and anxiety about how utterly outmatched I will be on Friday.
I wonder if Varkonyi ever felt that, even for one second? Because,
come on, I can totally beat THAT guy.
All things considered, though, today wasn't a bad day. Last night we
retired after setting the alarm for 2am so we could go downstairs and
play the Horseshoe's (why give in and call it Binion's?) late night
tourney. Around 2am the alarm went off, we talked to each other in our
sleep a little bit, and the next thing I knew it was morning. So much
for that.
>From there it was breakfast at the Coffee Pub on Sahara and then the
12pm tournament at the Palms. Here is where my first huge mistake of
the trip happened.
Right at the break, with about 800 in chips, with the blinds at 50-100
and having not yet rebuyed, I pushed a preflop raiser with A-10 suited
hoping to double through and not have to take a rebuy.
Dumb mistake, because he busted me with AK and I ended up taking the
rebuy anyway. Would have been smarter to fold and take the rebuy and
have 1800 if I knew I was going to rebuy anyway, but I acted carelessly
both when I pushed and when I told the dealer I wanted a rebuy. Of
course the ten big bets didn't last long after the break and I
managed to turn a $225 loss into a $425 loss. Brilliant.
We then went to the Bellagio to play live for a while. John and Keith
hit the 10-20 no limit game upstairs and I took a seat at 15-30.
The bellagio has remodeled and the place looks great. The top section
has these really nice paintings of poker players and chips and cards,
very modern and abstract with lots of pastel. That is contrasted with
"Bobby's Room", the sealed off high-limit room that houses the
big game, where they have decorated the place with gigantic photographs
of the regulars: Gus Hansen, Jennifer Harman, Doyle Brunson, etc. It
looks ugly, and I'm not sure I'd want to play under such a blown up
effigy of myself every day. But I suppose you won't go broke these
days betting on poker player's egos, judging from the attention
grabbing going on around this tournament.
I tried to coax Keith into playing limit with me but he said "I suck
at limit." Who are these players with no limit poker in their games?
Didn't EVERYONE learn poker in the same order? Draw, stud, limit
holdem, no limit holdem, pot limit Omaha? I thought that was the
standard curriculum. Guess I'm wrong. There seem to be scores of
players who only play no limit holdem. I don't blame them, it's a
great game. But lets diversify, keep the casinos spreading some other
fun.
I played alright, if I do say so myself. I managed to book a nice win
against a couple of decent players and a few of the worst I've ever
seen in my entire life. Then it all started to go south on me. I
think the turning point was this hand: flop the nut straight with JQ
on an 8 9 10 board. I'm first to act coming out of the small blind
and I bet and it is called and raised. I reraise, call and reraise.
We all three get five bets in, with me putting in the last bet. Did I
mention there were two clubs on the board? Turn was a 6 of diamonds, I
bet and am called in both spots. River is 7 of clubs, I check and
call, and am up against two flush draws.
I know it's just another bad beat story, so I'll spare you the
others, because I got plenty where that one came from. I managed to
turn a decent win into a $130 loss before the worst of the bad players
got up and I figured I would leave, too.
Next to my table I overheard a ridiculous conversation between some man
and two floor personel. He was angry because somebody in his 1-2 no
limit game asked him how much money he had in front of him during a
hand, and the dealer counted out his checks. According to this man,
not only did he not have to count his money out, the dealer had no
right to touch his checks, they were HIS checks and the dealer can't
touch them. Now I would have just told this guy "that's our rule,
you can try to play somewhere else if you think their rules will be any
different but I'm much too busy to argue with you about it."
Instead, the floorpersons argued with him for a good 20 minutes about
it. "That's our rule, a player has the right to ask." "Yes
they have the right to ask but I don't have to count it." "Yes
you do." "Is that the rule?" "The rule says they can ask."
"But does the rule say you have to count it?" "Yes." "I want
to see the rules. Show me the rules." "I can't do that." This
went on ad nauseum. But the most hysterical thing was that the guy
said "I want to see the World Poker Tour rules. I don't think this
is a World Poker Tour rule." "Sir, you aren't on the World Poker
Tour." "But you have to follow the World Poker Tour rules! You
can't just make up your own rules!" So now we are all on the World
Poker Tour. I wonder if people can see my hole cards, too. Sometimes
it sure fucking feels like it.
We took a dinner break at Noodles, and the bad beat stories came forth.
John tells me about losing $2 grand the first hand he played where he
bet off all his chips on each street with the worst hand. He says
"the most embarrassing thing about it was Keith was there, because if
he wasn't I could have lied to you about the hand." John Bacon is
still the nuts.
John and Keith introduced us to credit card roulette last year. Credit
card roulette is where everyone throws in a card after dinner and the
server picks a card to charge the bill to. In Vegas, we pretty much
credit card roulette EVERYTHING, and so far I'm 3-3. We keep talking
about how we need to convince our whole group to roulette our yearly
steak dinner before the UWSWSOP, which with 15 people should come in at
just under a thousand dollars. I said I would definetly do it, and so
would John, but most people would pussy out. John says "why would
you not do it? You CANT lose! 15 people! Its impossible to lose!"
He's wrong, but he's totally right.
On our way out of the Bellagio, John makes us go to some ritzy ass shop
called Ritatta or something equally Italian and fru-fru. John is into
all the gaudy rich people shit but the salespeople seem pretty good
humored. I chat with one salesman while John tries on $5,000 pairs of
sunglasses. He tells me that everyone at the Bellagio is new, because
the Wynn pulled 9,000 jobs off the strip, and everyone got a promotion
to a new casino. Mirage to Bellagio, TI to Mirage, Luxor to TI,
Excalibur to Luxor, etc. He seemed really excited about his new job.
His 3% commission on this junk usually can cover his nut, since he
shares his $700 rent with his brother right behind the Venetian.
"I'm so close I can walk to work!" He seemed pretty happy about
working at Bellagio, but even happier about his life out in Vegas for
the last five years. The city is filled with these people. People who
came out here to start a new life, a simpler life, a life with a little
bit of fun and excitement. This city, like a handful of other American
cities, is filled with people from somewhere else who came to Vegas to
reinvent themselves. It could mean that Vegas has no real character,
with all these people from other places coming here to escape who they
really are. But here talking to this guy, I felt like there is
something unique that connects all these nomads together, sews them
together into a new community.
John bought a $400 pair of sunglasses, no shit. I yelled at him all
the way home. "You're going to lose them!" Everyone loses
sunglasses. Everyone. That's why normal people buy them in the gas
station. What a priss.
I head over to the Rio for the second chance tournament. I needed a
second chance. I was feeling bad about my tournament skills and needed
to play well to psyche myself up for Friday. On the way there John
convinces me to stop stalling and to buy in to Friday's event so I
can't chicken out later. I agree, and we both lay down $2k.
Before the second chance I watched the bubble of the $1k No Limit with
rebuys event. Several notable players are still in, but this kid Shane
that I play with in the clubs in New York is chip leader. I also run
into a buddy from the game in Poughkeepsie, New York I used to play in
years ago. He tells me that Anthony, the guy who used to run the game,
was still in the tournament with 9k about to make the money. I sit and
watch Scott Fischman's table for about an hour waiting for my
tournament to start. Lots of pushing preflop, trying to pick up blinds
and antes. Then David Pham goes on a fucking rush from hell and picks
up several pots in a row. I wish I could have seen his hole cards,
man.
I sit in the second chance and double up rather quickly with an A-10
that makes a flush on the river and I get called. But somehow every
time I raise preflop from then to the break I get reraised and I lay
down or call and lay down to the flop. I'm playing pretty passively,
even though I told myself I'd come in raising with any hand I was
going to play. I try to stop and go, but still get outplayed on flops.
Before long, I have only two pots to my credit, the one where I
doubled and one where I stole blinds with AA. I end up getting busted
with 55 right after the first break. My confidence shaken, I take a
cab to the Horseshoe and get in the 2am tournament.
This one must be a Third Chance, because most of the players I
recognized from the second chance. We got four tables together and
played for a $1500 first place. I triple up around the 75-150 level
and become chip leader, but manage to fuck it all up at two tables when
I get reraised on two total blind steals in a row. Its like they can
see through my cards. I vow to tighten up and end up going to the final
table as the shortest stack. Somehow I still make the money, but only
barely, busting out in 6th.
The players in this tournament were almost as obnoxious as the players
I played with at the Bellagio tonight. Tonight I saw players berate
and stiff dealers, holler at chip runners, floor people, try to start
fights with other players, and probably worse than anything else,
slowroll people. I've seen like four slow rolls tonight. The
slowroll is the worst offense of poker ettiquite, and I'm shocked
that it goes on so much now without out and out fist fights. I know
when I get slow rolled, I'm going to raise holy hell on someone so
they won't ever try that shit on someone else. This isn't the
goddamn internet, and you aren't worm, so take off your sunglasses
motherfucker. YOU ARE INDOORS.
Dave Hill
www.meatmachine.org/poker
S
Tanya AKA misst74
Loved the report, thanks. Thanks for the info on the 2am Horseshoe tourney, I
never knew about that one! I will be there this weekend if I bust out early of
the 12am Plaza one.
Tanya
> <a href="http://www.meatmachine.org/poker" target="_blank">www.meatmachine.org/poker</a>
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