Kids
I just chronicled my trip to the 'big dance' and thought I'd include you folks. Noone has to read this all, but thought you might like to hear about it. Rather than tell it individually, I sent an email to most everybody that wanted to know, but thought a few people here might appreciate it.
PS IF it sucks up too much server space or something, we can always delete it later.
_______________________________
Folks
For those of you who know my poker exploits, I thought it’d be best to tell everybody the same story all at once so that I wouldn’t need to repeat it 20 or so times. Don’t get me wrong, I love to talk about myself more than Phil Hellmuth, just that I’m quite weary after 8 days and 7 nights of poker and don’t want to repeat myself too much.
My experience was better than expected, but just shy of my goal. My goal was to take $1500, and turn it into $15,000—with $5k added to my bankroll, and $10,000 to go towards the main event. The main event, July 7-15 is the $10,000 buy-in World Series of Poker that you see on ESPN every year and is known as the World Championship. This has been occuring since 1970, and now includes 45 events—all of which, if you win, you are a World Champion. PS I had $1000 in my wallet to cover incidentals, but at all times, ZERO was entered into poker, and WOULD NOT be factored into any of this. $1000 for 7 days is Vegas in my opinion is plenty of money, but I don’t want anyone to get confused here as to what happened. PS I am on TV twice, but don’t know if they’ll air it or not.
June 30 Thursday Leave MSP 4pm, arrive 5:15 (total sleep, 6 hours)
2:30pm - The Plane was 1hr 45mins late for taking off, so I missed the 7pm tournament that I was to play in.
7:30pm - Arrived way late for the tournament, went over to RIO for Satellite mania.
8:30pm - Played in a $525 event, winner of 1 table tournament wins $5,000 in tournament chips
I played very well, but got beat. I had 3-10s, the other guy had a pair of Queens. We all had $1000 in tournament chips. Here’s the Set up:
Preflop
Me 10,10 vs Q,Q 3 people limp for $50, I raise to $250, and get 1 caller
Flop
10, 4, 2 ( I have 3-10s and am 95% favorite to win the hand)
Bet $300, guy raises me all in, I call. Winner will have $2100 or so, and be chip leader)
4th Street
Q, for 3 Queens vs my 3 10s!!!!! I’m a 99% underdog to lose!!!
5th Street
Q, for 4 Queens!!!
I am DESTROYED by Quad Queens!!! Everyone at the table and 2 tables around me are admiring the horrendous beat that happened!!!! After that hand, I went over to the Mirage to play a cash game to get some of my $525 back. I got $225 of it back in a very tight game. Day’s results:
$1500 Start
$1200 End
July 1 Friday On to the Bellagio (total sleep 8 hrs)
4:00pm - Put up $1000 in a $10/$20 no limit cash game, Got into big game.
5:30pm - Had 3 KINGS vs Inside Straight DRAW…made an all-in bet, opponent called anyway
What I thought was funny was that I showed the guy my hand, told him he had 4- 4s left in the deck that could make him a winner, and I had 40 cards (10:1) and that’s what he faced. I explained to him that if any one of 10 cards hit the board, and he was an AUTOMATIC loser, still he called!!! Oh well?
I was down to $200 of my $1500 bankroll for the ENTIRE trip in 91 minutes!!!
I just took a TILT break, and decided that I would eat and develop a gaming strategy for how I was going to turn $200 into $15,000 Of course, that involved a meal @ Samba’s Brazilian Barbeque over @ the Mirage. After pulling the $35 for a meal there, I headed over to the Mirage Poker room and sprung $300 loose from some drunk tourists, and retired for the night with $500 to my poker parlay.
After this session, I developed the idea that I would play 1-table mini-tournaments until I either busted out, or made the money to make the ‘big dance’ and so I retired for the night.
$1200 Start
$500 end YIKES!!!
July 2 Saturday On to the Horseshoe (now just called Binions) total sleep 5 hrs
Since Harrah’s bought out the Binion’s Horseshoe in 2004, and consequently resold it to another company, this place has never been the same. No longer is it THE place to play poker, just another ordinary run-down casino in downtown. However, If all you have is $500, whatcha gonna do?
I played in $60 one table tournaments (most know them as Sit N Go’s as you’ll sit down, and as soon as there’s 10 people, you’ll play) and won 1 of the 5 that I played, and chopped (tied) in another one. Each paid $520, so I ended up with $780 from that day, spending $300, I was up $480 for the day
$500 START
$1180 END ‘almost’ even for the trip
Instead of being up and on my way, I was scraping the bottom of the pudding cup. This day was pivotal for my poker career, because I told a bunch of friends that if I DIDN’T win, I’d give up poker for the rest of the year. Of course, the other side of the coin was if I Won a WSOP event, I’d quit my job. Not much of a threat, but after winning millions, I really don’t think what I could make scratching out loans would compare to what I’d win. Either way, it was just an idle threat, because noone in their right mind quits their job to play poker. Might be crazy, but I ain’t dumb. Even if I won millions, I’d still be a working stiff…if you can even call me that. HAPPY
July 3 Sunday One Last Day rebuilding @ the ‘Shoe (total sleep 4 hrs)
I know it’s weird, but even at the $200 level, I never doubted my ability. Yeah, the valley of darkness was quite deep, I just never felt that I made a mistake, or did anything wrong…I just got outdrawn. Hard to believe that a guy could play 4 days of break-even poker and consider himself successful, but I did. I was STILL alive…just on life support with tubes hanging outta me all over. (After telling my story to John “world’ Hennigan, he said I should have just found some Naughty nurses at the Crazy Horse and said the heck with it. Whatta guy! J He was just joking.)
If yesterday was pivotal, today was even more critical. 2 of my 3 friends advised me to quit playing, and enjoy 4 days in Vegas with $2000 in my pocket. I only listend to the guy who said keep playing. Why? Because each and every time I won a pivotal game, my 2 cards were 3*3. No, not Aces, but a pair of 3s!!!! This is a theme that we’ll all laugh at later. 3*3 is about the 50th best hand in poker (out of 221 hands) but the favorite of a very underrated player that if he ever develops patience, will be a World Champion. J For now, we’ll call 3*3 Amiot Aces!!! 3*3AA
Sunday @ the Horseshoe was a brutal day. I started @ 9:00AM, and after the 94degree cab ride, I played 11 tournaments. Each $60 except one super 10 table one which cost me $120. Of the 11 tournaments, I won or split the winnings of 4 of them for a total of $1300 in winnings, with 720 invested. $580 profit for the day. Coincidentally, 2 of the tournaments that I won or split the winnings, I had 3*3 as the hand that made me a winner!!!!!! That’s 4 confirmed victories with a pair of 3s in the hole. After this, I decided to keep ‘Ace’ abreast of my poker exploits.
$1180 START
$1760 END 14 hours of poker!!!!!!!
Called a friend in San Diego, ordered room service, and collapsed.
July 4 Monday Off to the RIO All Suites Hotel and Casino (total sleep 0 hrs- played all night)
Great! After spending 4 nights and 3 days in Lost Wages, Nevada, I’m basically DEAD EVEN for the trip. Surprisingly, I didn’t feel like I couldn’t make $10,000 in 3 days, just that it didn’t look good. Walked into the Rio at 8:30 AM!!! To play a $125 satellite. Basically, it’s a table of 10 people, and the winner gets $1000 in chips towards playing any tournament. Since there was a $1000 tournament at NOON that day, I couldn’t resist. For all I know, it could be the last chance I have of a tournament this trip, right?
After being the short stack the whole way until we get 3 handed (7 others busted out), I caught a couple of cards, and bluffed out 2 other players in the biggest lie since Bill Clinton didn’t have a girlfriends in the White House….after that, I had 6500 of the 10,000 chips in play, and steamrolled over the other 2 guys—the big bluff was a pair of 3s!!! The winning hand head’s up was 3s when I flopped a set of threes and the other guy had AQ, but caught a Queen and called my All In bet.
Now, you’d think, after having a big win like that, I would take the $1000 in tournament chips over to the $1000 satellite and try to win a seat in the main event. Instead, I chose to enter the $1000 No Limit event, with another 1000 or so poker junkies. Had I read the event card, I would have known that it was an UNLIMITED REBUY tournament, but being so happy to stay alive, I just entered it and said go for it. That decision may have been the only other mistake I made the entire 7 day trip…because most everyone else that played at my table busted out a number of times, and just paid $1000 to reenter the tournament to win.
You’d think in a 100 table tournament, I’d be likely to avoid some of the heavy hitters. However, at my table, John Juanda, a multiple tournament winner, was present, and had over $25,000 in rebuy chips ready to go. Before I played a hand, he had busted out 6 TIMES!!!! And a total of 11 times before we had a hand together.
On ‘our’ hand, I had KK in the hole preflop. I bet $250 of my 1800 in chips, and he called (with Q5 suited). On the flop, K 2 8, hit the board. I had 3 KINGS, and was a huge favorite to win. However, since John didn’t value money, he decided that he’d play the hand to the river as he called my all in bet of $1550 into a $625 pot!!!
What can you do? The guy didn’t value money?
At any rate, I went back over to the Sit N Go section, and played $50 one table games, top 2 places gets $225. I ended up playing 9 of them and placing in 5 of them. I paid $675 in entry fees, and winning $1800 after tipping the dealers---adding 1125 to my bank.
$1760 START
$2885 END
July 5 Tuesday Still at the RIO (total sleep 4 hrs)
If you are not good at math, I have 48 hours til the big dance. I still need ALL $10,000 to enter in, plus what I have to cover any expenses and a last minute return flight to Minneapolis. So, I need to make $5000 PER DAY to have a shot at this.
After playing 6-$50 events and winning 3 of them, I entered into a $225 rebuy event. I liked getting experience in a large field, and the other other tournaments offered were a $540 unlimited rebuy event, and a 2 to 7 lowball $5000 buy-in event—so I didn’t have any other choice. I used 2 of my $200 certificates to do this event.
After playing for 2 hours, 1 and 3 other guys at my table ended up getting it down from 30 tables to 4 of them!!!! Unbelievable, but a great accomplishment. After getting split up, I and John (from the UK) remained at the ‘feature’ table and started to build up some major chip stacks. The 2 of us had eliminated about 30 people each, and were feeling very good about our prospects.
The tournament paid 2 tables of 9 players, and 18th place was double your money back. $400 didn’t seem like much, but 1st was $19,000!!!! That meant that 1st, 2nd, and 3rd could likely BUY their way into the main event. I was bent on making 3rd if it killed me. Of course, it did, but still, that what I wanted.
As we approached the final table, we were down to 2 tables of 9. I knocked out my buddy John in 14th, who was short stacked, and to be honest, I’d have rather lost to keep him there. He was no doubt a solid player, but so easy to read I needed him there. The other players were basically ALL-IN on every hand, and determined to let luck decide their fate. Me, I would try to limp in with AA and let them hang themselves. This strategy worked, but one guy was cornering the market and had 125,000 + in chips while I had $25,000.
Not much of a difference? Blinds were 2k/4k and antes were 1k. Technically, he could get blinded off, and still finish 3rd or 2nd. Me, I lost $8,000 in chips in antes and $6000 in each round. I HAD to double up, or go home. We were @ 2 tables 5,6 players.
In the small blind everybody folds to me and I wake up with deuces….not a good hand, but if anyone called my bet, I’d be in good shape unless they had a pair. I move all in, and a guy with K 10 calls me. When we flipped over our cards, I was THRILLED to learn that he didn’t have a pair. Unfortunately, I wasn’t thrilled to see the flop come K K 3—giving him a set of kings. I didn’t have any other draws, so I needed a miracle 2 to give me a full house to his 3 Kings. Nothing hit on the turn or river, and I was out in 10th place. Should have waited for 33s in this one, huh? (wouldda made a full house)
Prize $898 Whoo Hooo!!!! That was the only other mistake or bad call I made the entire trip. I could have just folded my $1000 ante, and waited out a few more hands. However, my goal wasn’t 7th or 6th, it was 1st, so I needed some chips to make it happen. Also, if I won a pot without a contest, it would have been $14,000 in dead money, so I should have picked a better spot. It was Big Bling vs Small Blind, and I bet into him. Oh well, ~$900 for 6 hours of work wasn’t bad, was it? I had put in $300 in entries, and got $900 back plus $200 in a tournament voucher for a total of $1100 on the day.
$2885 START
$3985 END
July 6 The last Day at the RIO (24 hour bender….no sleep—just a shower, and 2 meals)
Well, this is it. In my opinion, if I still needed to make close to $10k to do the event. I had a discussion with 3 of my homies, and all agreed that I have come this far, I’m not backing out now. So, if I made $10,000 exactly, I would put 100% into my silly dream of making this ‘stupid poker game’ as one person called it. You gotta laugh, but I was profitable in every month of poker since Dec 04, but there’s always somebody who doesn’t understand the game.
Personally, if I made $1000 more than necessary, I would enter the event. That came close enough to the $15,000 I felt I needed to have the confidence to play the game. Trust me, $10,000 into a poker tournament is ludicrous, but coming home with $1,000 more than I left would soften the blow if I didn’t place in the money.
This day would be the most tumultous day in my poker career. If you are good at addition and division, I’ve had 27 hours of sleep in 6 days for a total of about 4.5 hrs a day. Although I could function, alertness was next to zero, attention span was limited, and without the help of 60 oz of mountain dew, I wasn’t going to remain awake.
From this morning, it was time to put up or shut up. I needed a BIG win to make it. Therefore, I played in $125, $225, and $1030 events. How I did it was I paid $125 and $225 cash to enter those events, and $65 for $500 in tournament chips, and the $125 and $225 winners got $1,000 and $2,000 in tournament chips respectively.
As the day progressed, I was running on fumes. I had entered 2- $225 events, came up empty handed and 1-$125 event and got shut out. I also entered 2-$65 events and won both of them, and would parlay my $1,000 in tournament chips to make the big dance. I finished 3rd in that event. I had invested $710, and was empty handed.
It came down to the final few hours before they shut down the satellites for the main event. Guys were getting desperate. The games I played were all against the most solid players, and it was nothing but chess matches. Noone there was weak, and I needed to beat the sharks out for the main event. Here’s my final 2 games:
$125 buy in…I was playing for $1,000 tournament chips. I committed to my self that this was the LAST game I played if I didn’t win. Why? Because I was so tired, even if I did win, I wouldn’t have much of a chance in that condition. Surprisingly, the first hand I played was a pair of 3s. I just loosely called, and flopped a set of 3s (3 of a kind). I won 600 in dead money, and that was the last hand I remembered playing against the other 9 players until we got down to 4 handed. I know I played 4 or 5 hands, but couldn’t remember a thing. Highway Hypnosis is what they call it when you are driving, I call it Check Flopskin’s disease. J
4 handed, I was so short stacked, I was willing to put my money in on any 2 cards. I had $1100 in chips, they had about $3,000 each. Blinds were $200/$400 and I wake up with AA and just call preflop for 200 more in the small blind. To my SURPRISE, the Large Blind raises ME all in, and even to his surprise, the 2 other schmucks call for a total of $4400 in the pot!!!!! They all 3 checked it down when an Ace hit the board, and I was now the CHIP LEADER!!!!! Talk about a reversal of fortunes?!?!?!?!?
From there, I just bullied around the other 3 guys til I made a deal with a guy that winner keeps the chips, loser keeps the $120 in prize money. 1 hand later, I woke up with 3*3, and took all his money. I had $3150 in cash, and $1,000 in tournament chips….exactly what I felt I needed to play the Main Event. I had the feeling that noone could stop me now.
I was TEMPTED to sell my $1,000 in tournament chips to a couple of guys in line at the $1030 entry, and just going home with $4150 in cash, with a great story and experience. What stopped me? I won it with 3*3!!! That’s what did it.
I text messaged 2 friends my story, and both said do what makes you happy. I couldn’t decide, so I went to have some food. While eating, I thought about the last 4 trips I made to Vegas. How I always left wanting another piece of this town. How I hadn’t made any major mistakes, and how I REALLY felt I was a better player than my results. I thought a lot about the 10th place finish in the littler tournament and how I felt after I nearly went all the way. And, although it was a marginal mistake, I didn’t feel I did anything really wrong, I just got unlucky. While walking the halls, I ran into (literally) to John ‘World’ Hennigan and gave him the ‘short story’. After congratulating him on his Victory AND his place in the 2 to 7 lowball event, he said, “That’s a tough one..”… because, “..even I don’t expect to make the money..” but, “..since you’re an amateur, you have a better chance than I do.” So….
So, after ‘picking up my skirt’ I said, “F*** it!!! I’m playing” I walk back into the RIO pavilion (which is a 5 block walk), I get really mad, downed a 24oz Coke, and go back in there for one more shot. I take the $1,000 in tournament chips, get in line (the same 3 people were still waiting) and play.
We get $5000 in chips, and winner gets $10,000 in tournament chips—enough to buy in to the Big Ding. You could have called this the check/fold Olympics because only one guy was playing….stealing all blinds. He manages to rack up $10,000 in chips before I set him straight with a $2,000 check raise (with nothing) into a $1,500 pot. I could literally see his bruised ego after he folded and I showed him my 7*4 off suit with an A, K, 7 on the board. From there, he tilted off the rest of his chips.
After 1hr 30 minutes, we all took an impromptu whiz break. At that break, I had $8,000 as did 2 other guys and 18k between 3 other players. 6 handed, I was looking good, til after the break when I had AK and another guy had 10*10. Flop was A K 10 and my 2 pair got shot down. Luckily, the guy only had $3400, because we were all in and I called. Now, I have $4,600 and was short stack.
After getting it 4 handed, I was all in on every hand with my remaining $4,000. Noone would call, so I just kept stealing the $1,500 in blind money. Finally, I was in 3rd place when the 4th place guy went all in. I had KK, he had A, 10. He flopped an Ace, and I was in REAL trouble with $2,000 in chips.
All in, All in, All in later; I won with K*5 (suited), K*6 (off suit), and finally, AA, and was in 2nd chip position. We got it down to 3 people, and stopped the action. We all had ~$15,000 in chips, so basically, we were even. One guy offered a 3 way chop (where we all take an even share of the winnings) but the ‘old guy’ in the corner said no dice. 3 hands later, I chopped down the ‘dead wood’ I had $28,000 in chips, and agreed to a 50/50 split with the other guy. He offered me $5000 in cash, and considering $28k to $22k isn’t much of an advantage with $1k/$2k blinds, I decided that I should take the money. Frankly, we such evenly matched players, luck would have decided the game anyway. That, and I was relieved to have gone from $2,000 in chips to having a 50% share. There were $50,000 chips in play, so it was a remarkable 25:1 comeback.
After all, I could enter a couple more events with my money, AND, Noone goes home a loser. Besides, the guy had already won an entry, and would just sell off his chips anyway. He’d have been all in EVERY hand until there was a winner, because he just didn’t care. He was on a ‘free roll’ anyway. Had he won, he’d have just bought a friend in the event. Instead, his friend bought in for a discount. Financially, I’d rather have what happened occur than let luck decide what happened to me.
Now, I have $8150 in cold hard, and a couple more chances at the big ding. I entered a $225 event which even a chop would get me $1000 in winnings. Didn’t get there. I entered a $125 event, but fell asleep in the middle of a couple of hands, and just decided that was it. I ended up with $7800 in cash, and after paying expenses and reloading my poker fund, had $6000 in cash profit.
That’s Exactly $1250 a day from when I got busted by the Jackass at Bellagio. Oh well, I’m OK with my performance.
JULY 7 BACK TO MSP (10 hrs of rest, but couldn’t sleep more than 6 hrs)
I went to bed at 4am July 7 with a wad of dough, a cart full of experience, and an mountain of confidence that I would really make it if I had more time. I haven’t decided if I’m going to keep my promise of not playing cash poker til Jan 1, 2006 or not…..however, I think a couple of weeks off wouldn’t hurt.
See you next week,
Mr Brownstone
PS Screw it! I’m going to Turtle Lake tonight!!! USFLAG Tee Hee
Replies (3)
gearhead on 07/8/2005 22:17:02
Much of the story is Greek to me. Entertaining, but still Greek.
swez on 07/9/2005 08:10:21
Sounds like a trip to remember!
Is this a hobby run amuckor, an addiction to high stakes risk taking or just an opportunity to see how far the edge of the world is?
Glad you came back with a nice wad... but what a ride to get there.
"Keep your friends close.... your enemies even closer"... Al Capone
Swez COFFEE
ttocs on 07/9/2005 15:32:50
sounds like a trip you need to write down as it happens to remember.........
I just chronicled my trip to the 'big dance' and thought I'd include you folks. Noone has to read this all, but thought you might like to hear about it. Rather than tell it individually, I sent an email to most everybody that wanted to know, but thought a few people here might appreciate it.
PS IF it sucks up too much server space or something, we can always delete it later.
_______________________________
Folks
For those of you who know my poker exploits, I thought it’d be best to tell everybody the same story all at once so that I wouldn’t need to repeat it 20 or so times. Don’t get me wrong, I love to talk about myself more than Phil Hellmuth, just that I’m quite weary after 8 days and 7 nights of poker and don’t want to repeat myself too much.
My experience was better than expected, but just shy of my goal. My goal was to take $1500, and turn it into $15,000—with $5k added to my bankroll, and $10,000 to go towards the main event. The main event, July 7-15 is the $10,000 buy-in World Series of Poker that you see on ESPN every year and is known as the World Championship. This has been occuring since 1970, and now includes 45 events—all of which, if you win, you are a World Champion. PS I had $1000 in my wallet to cover incidentals, but at all times, ZERO was entered into poker, and WOULD NOT be factored into any of this. $1000 for 7 days is Vegas in my opinion is plenty of money, but I don’t want anyone to get confused here as to what happened. PS I am on TV twice, but don’t know if they’ll air it or not.
June 30 Thursday Leave MSP 4pm, arrive 5:15 (total sleep, 6 hours)
2:30pm - The Plane was 1hr 45mins late for taking off, so I missed the 7pm tournament that I was to play in.
7:30pm - Arrived way late for the tournament, went over to RIO for Satellite mania.
8:30pm - Played in a $525 event, winner of 1 table tournament wins $5,000 in tournament chips
I played very well, but got beat. I had 3-10s, the other guy had a pair of Queens. We all had $1000 in tournament chips. Here’s the Set up:
Preflop
Me 10,10 vs Q,Q 3 people limp for $50, I raise to $250, and get 1 caller
Flop
10, 4, 2 ( I have 3-10s and am 95% favorite to win the hand)
Bet $300, guy raises me all in, I call. Winner will have $2100 or so, and be chip leader)
4th Street
Q, for 3 Queens vs my 3 10s!!!!! I’m a 99% underdog to lose!!!
5th Street
Q, for 4 Queens!!!
I am DESTROYED by Quad Queens!!! Everyone at the table and 2 tables around me are admiring the horrendous beat that happened!!!! After that hand, I went over to the Mirage to play a cash game to get some of my $525 back. I got $225 of it back in a very tight game. Day’s results:
$1500 Start
$1200 End
July 1 Friday On to the Bellagio (total sleep 8 hrs)
4:00pm - Put up $1000 in a $10/$20 no limit cash game, Got into big game.
5:30pm - Had 3 KINGS vs Inside Straight DRAW…made an all-in bet, opponent called anyway
What I thought was funny was that I showed the guy my hand, told him he had 4- 4s left in the deck that could make him a winner, and I had 40 cards (10:1) and that’s what he faced. I explained to him that if any one of 10 cards hit the board, and he was an AUTOMATIC loser, still he called!!! Oh well?
I was down to $200 of my $1500 bankroll for the ENTIRE trip in 91 minutes!!!
I just took a TILT break, and decided that I would eat and develop a gaming strategy for how I was going to turn $200 into $15,000 Of course, that involved a meal @ Samba’s Brazilian Barbeque over @ the Mirage. After pulling the $35 for a meal there, I headed over to the Mirage Poker room and sprung $300 loose from some drunk tourists, and retired for the night with $500 to my poker parlay.
After this session, I developed the idea that I would play 1-table mini-tournaments until I either busted out, or made the money to make the ‘big dance’ and so I retired for the night.
$1200 Start
$500 end YIKES!!!
July 2 Saturday On to the Horseshoe (now just called Binions) total sleep 5 hrs
Since Harrah’s bought out the Binion’s Horseshoe in 2004, and consequently resold it to another company, this place has never been the same. No longer is it THE place to play poker, just another ordinary run-down casino in downtown. However, If all you have is $500, whatcha gonna do?
I played in $60 one table tournaments (most know them as Sit N Go’s as you’ll sit down, and as soon as there’s 10 people, you’ll play) and won 1 of the 5 that I played, and chopped (tied) in another one. Each paid $520, so I ended up with $780 from that day, spending $300, I was up $480 for the day
$500 START
$1180 END ‘almost’ even for the trip
Instead of being up and on my way, I was scraping the bottom of the pudding cup. This day was pivotal for my poker career, because I told a bunch of friends that if I DIDN’T win, I’d give up poker for the rest of the year. Of course, the other side of the coin was if I Won a WSOP event, I’d quit my job. Not much of a threat, but after winning millions, I really don’t think what I could make scratching out loans would compare to what I’d win. Either way, it was just an idle threat, because noone in their right mind quits their job to play poker. Might be crazy, but I ain’t dumb. Even if I won millions, I’d still be a working stiff…if you can even call me that. HAPPY
July 3 Sunday One Last Day rebuilding @ the ‘Shoe (total sleep 4 hrs)
I know it’s weird, but even at the $200 level, I never doubted my ability. Yeah, the valley of darkness was quite deep, I just never felt that I made a mistake, or did anything wrong…I just got outdrawn. Hard to believe that a guy could play 4 days of break-even poker and consider himself successful, but I did. I was STILL alive…just on life support with tubes hanging outta me all over. (After telling my story to John “world’ Hennigan, he said I should have just found some Naughty nurses at the Crazy Horse and said the heck with it. Whatta guy! J He was just joking.)
If yesterday was pivotal, today was even more critical. 2 of my 3 friends advised me to quit playing, and enjoy 4 days in Vegas with $2000 in my pocket. I only listend to the guy who said keep playing. Why? Because each and every time I won a pivotal game, my 2 cards were 3*3. No, not Aces, but a pair of 3s!!!! This is a theme that we’ll all laugh at later. 3*3 is about the 50th best hand in poker (out of 221 hands) but the favorite of a very underrated player that if he ever develops patience, will be a World Champion. J For now, we’ll call 3*3 Amiot Aces!!! 3*3AA
Sunday @ the Horseshoe was a brutal day. I started @ 9:00AM, and after the 94degree cab ride, I played 11 tournaments. Each $60 except one super 10 table one which cost me $120. Of the 11 tournaments, I won or split the winnings of 4 of them for a total of $1300 in winnings, with 720 invested. $580 profit for the day. Coincidentally, 2 of the tournaments that I won or split the winnings, I had 3*3 as the hand that made me a winner!!!!!! That’s 4 confirmed victories with a pair of 3s in the hole. After this, I decided to keep ‘Ace’ abreast of my poker exploits.
$1180 START
$1760 END 14 hours of poker!!!!!!!
Called a friend in San Diego, ordered room service, and collapsed.
July 4 Monday Off to the RIO All Suites Hotel and Casino (total sleep 0 hrs- played all night)
Great! After spending 4 nights and 3 days in Lost Wages, Nevada, I’m basically DEAD EVEN for the trip. Surprisingly, I didn’t feel like I couldn’t make $10,000 in 3 days, just that it didn’t look good. Walked into the Rio at 8:30 AM!!! To play a $125 satellite. Basically, it’s a table of 10 people, and the winner gets $1000 in chips towards playing any tournament. Since there was a $1000 tournament at NOON that day, I couldn’t resist. For all I know, it could be the last chance I have of a tournament this trip, right?
After being the short stack the whole way until we get 3 handed (7 others busted out), I caught a couple of cards, and bluffed out 2 other players in the biggest lie since Bill Clinton didn’t have a girlfriends in the White House….after that, I had 6500 of the 10,000 chips in play, and steamrolled over the other 2 guys—the big bluff was a pair of 3s!!! The winning hand head’s up was 3s when I flopped a set of threes and the other guy had AQ, but caught a Queen and called my All In bet.
Now, you’d think, after having a big win like that, I would take the $1000 in tournament chips over to the $1000 satellite and try to win a seat in the main event. Instead, I chose to enter the $1000 No Limit event, with another 1000 or so poker junkies. Had I read the event card, I would have known that it was an UNLIMITED REBUY tournament, but being so happy to stay alive, I just entered it and said go for it. That decision may have been the only other mistake I made the entire 7 day trip…because most everyone else that played at my table busted out a number of times, and just paid $1000 to reenter the tournament to win.
You’d think in a 100 table tournament, I’d be likely to avoid some of the heavy hitters. However, at my table, John Juanda, a multiple tournament winner, was present, and had over $25,000 in rebuy chips ready to go. Before I played a hand, he had busted out 6 TIMES!!!! And a total of 11 times before we had a hand together.
On ‘our’ hand, I had KK in the hole preflop. I bet $250 of my 1800 in chips, and he called (with Q5 suited). On the flop, K 2 8, hit the board. I had 3 KINGS, and was a huge favorite to win. However, since John didn’t value money, he decided that he’d play the hand to the river as he called my all in bet of $1550 into a $625 pot!!!
What can you do? The guy didn’t value money?
At any rate, I went back over to the Sit N Go section, and played $50 one table games, top 2 places gets $225. I ended up playing 9 of them and placing in 5 of them. I paid $675 in entry fees, and winning $1800 after tipping the dealers---adding 1125 to my bank.
$1760 START
$2885 END
July 5 Tuesday Still at the RIO (total sleep 4 hrs)
If you are not good at math, I have 48 hours til the big dance. I still need ALL $10,000 to enter in, plus what I have to cover any expenses and a last minute return flight to Minneapolis. So, I need to make $5000 PER DAY to have a shot at this.
After playing 6-$50 events and winning 3 of them, I entered into a $225 rebuy event. I liked getting experience in a large field, and the other other tournaments offered were a $540 unlimited rebuy event, and a 2 to 7 lowball $5000 buy-in event—so I didn’t have any other choice. I used 2 of my $200 certificates to do this event.
After playing for 2 hours, 1 and 3 other guys at my table ended up getting it down from 30 tables to 4 of them!!!! Unbelievable, but a great accomplishment. After getting split up, I and John (from the UK) remained at the ‘feature’ table and started to build up some major chip stacks. The 2 of us had eliminated about 30 people each, and were feeling very good about our prospects.
The tournament paid 2 tables of 9 players, and 18th place was double your money back. $400 didn’t seem like much, but 1st was $19,000!!!! That meant that 1st, 2nd, and 3rd could likely BUY their way into the main event. I was bent on making 3rd if it killed me. Of course, it did, but still, that what I wanted.
As we approached the final table, we were down to 2 tables of 9. I knocked out my buddy John in 14th, who was short stacked, and to be honest, I’d have rather lost to keep him there. He was no doubt a solid player, but so easy to read I needed him there. The other players were basically ALL-IN on every hand, and determined to let luck decide their fate. Me, I would try to limp in with AA and let them hang themselves. This strategy worked, but one guy was cornering the market and had 125,000 + in chips while I had $25,000.
Not much of a difference? Blinds were 2k/4k and antes were 1k. Technically, he could get blinded off, and still finish 3rd or 2nd. Me, I lost $8,000 in chips in antes and $6000 in each round. I HAD to double up, or go home. We were @ 2 tables 5,6 players.
In the small blind everybody folds to me and I wake up with deuces….not a good hand, but if anyone called my bet, I’d be in good shape unless they had a pair. I move all in, and a guy with K 10 calls me. When we flipped over our cards, I was THRILLED to learn that he didn’t have a pair. Unfortunately, I wasn’t thrilled to see the flop come K K 3—giving him a set of kings. I didn’t have any other draws, so I needed a miracle 2 to give me a full house to his 3 Kings. Nothing hit on the turn or river, and I was out in 10th place. Should have waited for 33s in this one, huh? (wouldda made a full house)
Prize $898 Whoo Hooo!!!! That was the only other mistake or bad call I made the entire trip. I could have just folded my $1000 ante, and waited out a few more hands. However, my goal wasn’t 7th or 6th, it was 1st, so I needed some chips to make it happen. Also, if I won a pot without a contest, it would have been $14,000 in dead money, so I should have picked a better spot. It was Big Bling vs Small Blind, and I bet into him. Oh well, ~$900 for 6 hours of work wasn’t bad, was it? I had put in $300 in entries, and got $900 back plus $200 in a tournament voucher for a total of $1100 on the day.
$2885 START
$3985 END
July 6 The last Day at the RIO (24 hour bender….no sleep—just a shower, and 2 meals)
Well, this is it. In my opinion, if I still needed to make close to $10k to do the event. I had a discussion with 3 of my homies, and all agreed that I have come this far, I’m not backing out now. So, if I made $10,000 exactly, I would put 100% into my silly dream of making this ‘stupid poker game’ as one person called it. You gotta laugh, but I was profitable in every month of poker since Dec 04, but there’s always somebody who doesn’t understand the game.
Personally, if I made $1000 more than necessary, I would enter the event. That came close enough to the $15,000 I felt I needed to have the confidence to play the game. Trust me, $10,000 into a poker tournament is ludicrous, but coming home with $1,000 more than I left would soften the blow if I didn’t place in the money.
This day would be the most tumultous day in my poker career. If you are good at addition and division, I’ve had 27 hours of sleep in 6 days for a total of about 4.5 hrs a day. Although I could function, alertness was next to zero, attention span was limited, and without the help of 60 oz of mountain dew, I wasn’t going to remain awake.
From this morning, it was time to put up or shut up. I needed a BIG win to make it. Therefore, I played in $125, $225, and $1030 events. How I did it was I paid $125 and $225 cash to enter those events, and $65 for $500 in tournament chips, and the $125 and $225 winners got $1,000 and $2,000 in tournament chips respectively.
As the day progressed, I was running on fumes. I had entered 2- $225 events, came up empty handed and 1-$125 event and got shut out. I also entered 2-$65 events and won both of them, and would parlay my $1,000 in tournament chips to make the big dance. I finished 3rd in that event. I had invested $710, and was empty handed.
It came down to the final few hours before they shut down the satellites for the main event. Guys were getting desperate. The games I played were all against the most solid players, and it was nothing but chess matches. Noone there was weak, and I needed to beat the sharks out for the main event. Here’s my final 2 games:
$125 buy in…I was playing for $1,000 tournament chips. I committed to my self that this was the LAST game I played if I didn’t win. Why? Because I was so tired, even if I did win, I wouldn’t have much of a chance in that condition. Surprisingly, the first hand I played was a pair of 3s. I just loosely called, and flopped a set of 3s (3 of a kind). I won 600 in dead money, and that was the last hand I remembered playing against the other 9 players until we got down to 4 handed. I know I played 4 or 5 hands, but couldn’t remember a thing. Highway Hypnosis is what they call it when you are driving, I call it Check Flopskin’s disease. J
4 handed, I was so short stacked, I was willing to put my money in on any 2 cards. I had $1100 in chips, they had about $3,000 each. Blinds were $200/$400 and I wake up with AA and just call preflop for 200 more in the small blind. To my SURPRISE, the Large Blind raises ME all in, and even to his surprise, the 2 other schmucks call for a total of $4400 in the pot!!!!! They all 3 checked it down when an Ace hit the board, and I was now the CHIP LEADER!!!!! Talk about a reversal of fortunes?!?!?!?!?
From there, I just bullied around the other 3 guys til I made a deal with a guy that winner keeps the chips, loser keeps the $120 in prize money. 1 hand later, I woke up with 3*3, and took all his money. I had $3150 in cash, and $1,000 in tournament chips….exactly what I felt I needed to play the Main Event. I had the feeling that noone could stop me now.
I was TEMPTED to sell my $1,000 in tournament chips to a couple of guys in line at the $1030 entry, and just going home with $4150 in cash, with a great story and experience. What stopped me? I won it with 3*3!!! That’s what did it.
I text messaged 2 friends my story, and both said do what makes you happy. I couldn’t decide, so I went to have some food. While eating, I thought about the last 4 trips I made to Vegas. How I always left wanting another piece of this town. How I hadn’t made any major mistakes, and how I REALLY felt I was a better player than my results. I thought a lot about the 10th place finish in the littler tournament and how I felt after I nearly went all the way. And, although it was a marginal mistake, I didn’t feel I did anything really wrong, I just got unlucky. While walking the halls, I ran into (literally) to John ‘World’ Hennigan and gave him the ‘short story’. After congratulating him on his Victory AND his place in the 2 to 7 lowball event, he said, “That’s a tough one..”… because, “..even I don’t expect to make the money..” but, “..since you’re an amateur, you have a better chance than I do.” So….
So, after ‘picking up my skirt’ I said, “F*** it!!! I’m playing” I walk back into the RIO pavilion (which is a 5 block walk), I get really mad, downed a 24oz Coke, and go back in there for one more shot. I take the $1,000 in tournament chips, get in line (the same 3 people were still waiting) and play.
We get $5000 in chips, and winner gets $10,000 in tournament chips—enough to buy in to the Big Ding. You could have called this the check/fold Olympics because only one guy was playing….stealing all blinds. He manages to rack up $10,000 in chips before I set him straight with a $2,000 check raise (with nothing) into a $1,500 pot. I could literally see his bruised ego after he folded and I showed him my 7*4 off suit with an A, K, 7 on the board. From there, he tilted off the rest of his chips.
After 1hr 30 minutes, we all took an impromptu whiz break. At that break, I had $8,000 as did 2 other guys and 18k between 3 other players. 6 handed, I was looking good, til after the break when I had AK and another guy had 10*10. Flop was A K 10 and my 2 pair got shot down. Luckily, the guy only had $3400, because we were all in and I called. Now, I have $4,600 and was short stack.
After getting it 4 handed, I was all in on every hand with my remaining $4,000. Noone would call, so I just kept stealing the $1,500 in blind money. Finally, I was in 3rd place when the 4th place guy went all in. I had KK, he had A, 10. He flopped an Ace, and I was in REAL trouble with $2,000 in chips.
All in, All in, All in later; I won with K*5 (suited), K*6 (off suit), and finally, AA, and was in 2nd chip position. We got it down to 3 people, and stopped the action. We all had ~$15,000 in chips, so basically, we were even. One guy offered a 3 way chop (where we all take an even share of the winnings) but the ‘old guy’ in the corner said no dice. 3 hands later, I chopped down the ‘dead wood’ I had $28,000 in chips, and agreed to a 50/50 split with the other guy. He offered me $5000 in cash, and considering $28k to $22k isn’t much of an advantage with $1k/$2k blinds, I decided that I should take the money. Frankly, we such evenly matched players, luck would have decided the game anyway. That, and I was relieved to have gone from $2,000 in chips to having a 50% share. There were $50,000 chips in play, so it was a remarkable 25:1 comeback.
After all, I could enter a couple more events with my money, AND, Noone goes home a loser. Besides, the guy had already won an entry, and would just sell off his chips anyway. He’d have been all in EVERY hand until there was a winner, because he just didn’t care. He was on a ‘free roll’ anyway. Had he won, he’d have just bought a friend in the event. Instead, his friend bought in for a discount. Financially, I’d rather have what happened occur than let luck decide what happened to me.
Now, I have $8150 in cold hard, and a couple more chances at the big ding. I entered a $225 event which even a chop would get me $1000 in winnings. Didn’t get there. I entered a $125 event, but fell asleep in the middle of a couple of hands, and just decided that was it. I ended up with $7800 in cash, and after paying expenses and reloading my poker fund, had $6000 in cash profit.
That’s Exactly $1250 a day from when I got busted by the Jackass at Bellagio. Oh well, I’m OK with my performance.
JULY 7 BACK TO MSP (10 hrs of rest, but couldn’t sleep more than 6 hrs)
I went to bed at 4am July 7 with a wad of dough, a cart full of experience, and an mountain of confidence that I would really make it if I had more time. I haven’t decided if I’m going to keep my promise of not playing cash poker til Jan 1, 2006 or not…..however, I think a couple of weeks off wouldn’t hurt.
See you next week,
Mr Brownstone
PS Screw it! I’m going to Turtle Lake tonight!!! USFLAG Tee Hee
Replies (3)
gearhead on 07/8/2005 22:17:02
Much of the story is Greek to me. Entertaining, but still Greek.
swez on 07/9/2005 08:10:21
Sounds like a trip to remember!
Is this a hobby run amuckor, an addiction to high stakes risk taking or just an opportunity to see how far the edge of the world is?
Glad you came back with a nice wad... but what a ride to get there.
"Keep your friends close.... your enemies even closer"... Al Capone
Swez COFFEE
ttocs on 07/9/2005 15:32:50
sounds like a trip you need to write down as it happens to remember.........
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