Back to the den of iniquity that is Las Vegas where poker player’s flock every year like floundering Wildebeest scrambling over each other eager not to be the last to have every last dollar fleeced from their pockets. Whether it is the poker organisers who have zero regard for the poker player and every regard for the cash in the poker player's pocket, or the wanton women offering anything you want for a price, right down to a person who seems to be employed by every hotel to create a queue at the taxi rank in order to 'help' each customer into each taxi and be rewarded at least $1 for each person they 'help'... this is the World Series.The wholesale fleecing that goes on is not really a problem for most of the gamblers who simply do not care. I was talking to a friend of mine over dinner about investing capital in property as opposed to keeping bundles under floorboards and he said poker players with big bankrolls should keep it in the bank as they would get 5% which would equate to £5,000 per annum for every £100,000 deposited. I pointed out that this equates to about £100 per week which is an amount that many players would put into a pot hoping the last card to be dealt was a diamond and so just not a consideration for many. Most poker players have an almost obscene disregard for the value of money that makes them appear like decadent playboys or girls.
There are many prostitutes here and hotel guests can participate in most activities that might take their fancy. I personally do not like to involve myself in such activity as I have an inherent dislike of any form of insincerity (which is why I generally dislike Las Vegas) and if I am to have sexual relations with a women I have, what nowadays, may be regarded as a psychological disorder that requires me to believe that they genuinely want to participate rather than simply be good at pretending they want to participate or only actually want to participate in receiving money off me. This is why I do not particularly like cats, as my experience of them is that they tend to be nice to you only when they want something off you.
Whilst I prefer to be fleeced by other methods it can be quite amusing to hear the stories of the activities of others. One player that we nicknamed 'boy wonder' seriously injured himself while engaging a lap dancer on a friend’s pool table and the spots of blood were a regular reminder, as they were not well camouflaged on the green baize. We were kind enough to inform all women that entered our company as to the position with regard to the 'boy wonder’s' broken penis.
Another poker player was very drunk and apparently reluctantly took a prostitute (they are not shy in making suggestions) back to his hotel room and as he sobered up he realised (and thought to himself) she bore a remarkable resemblance to footballer Emile Heskey. He had a particularly big room with two double beds and she said to him, "Is that the sleeping bed and the other one the fun bed?” Like a good poker player he spotted his chance and replied, “No, that’s my bed and that’s the door goodbye, Emile” and sent her packing.The money that is thrown around among poker players is mind boggling and the games available, even here, can sometimes fall short in terms of the adrenalin rush the high rollers seek. To satisfy the need they make up random bets to amuse themselves. One top American player was bet $350,000 that he could not complete four consecutive rounds of golf each with a score under 100 and on foot completely in the searing heat of 110 degrees. He completed the task, virtually requiring hospital attention afterwards, lost 10lb’s in weight but received the $350,000 and was back playing poker two days later.
High stakes player, former tennis player and model Patrik Antonius, who I last saw playing in his dressing down at the Bellagio $15,000 entry tournament earlier in the year, was playing the $5,000 entry Pot Limit Hold'Em event unsuccessfully and, in his disappointment, suggested he might take three months off from playing poker. A fellow player said “I bet you 500 you can not stop playing for three months”, “500 what?” asks Mr Antonius,.“Dollars” is the reply, to which he says, “Make it 500,000 and you have a bet” at which point the player attempts to disappear under the table.
That may sound flippant but he was genuinely not joking and, after being knocked out of that tournament, was later that evening seen playing online poker with over $700,000 on the table (not surprising that he may find it difficult to find the motivation to play at his peak in an event costing $5,000 to enter when he plays in a game where it may often cost $10,000 just to see the first three cards in any given hand).
Stuart Fox from Birmingham had yet another great result winning almost $450,000 for second place in the $5,000 No Limit event. This followed a second and third place last year and it can surely only be a matter of time before he returns with a winner's gold bracelet and if any poker player deserves a bracelet it must surely be the legendary Mickey Wernick who again showed his class winning $88,000 in a side event at the Bellagio.
Now for a bit of poker, namely the $10,000 entry Pot Limit Omaha Event, representing the soon to be opened new poker only club in Nottingham, DuskTillDawn. This event gives the European players the greatest edge against the Americans as they are not as experienced as we are at this game and despite the opportunity that exists in most poker games, to gamble or make a mistake and get lucky, existing particularly in this four card game, the Europeans tend to do well even though often outnumbered in terms of players from the states.
The skill level displayed by many Americans when playing Omaha can often be described as chimpanzee like. They do not really understand what they are doing and simply throw enough chips at the problem and hope to get lucky.
My good friend Jeff Kimber (left), the current World Heads Up Champion, was knocked out by a gibbon throwing a barrage of coconuts and bananas his way in the guise of double WSOP Main Event winner and probably most read poker author Doyle Brunson. He called Jeff’s re-raise with 8-9-T-T against Jeff’s pair of Aces and, after an irrelevant first four cards, hit one of only two tens he could possibly hit to beat Jeff and knock him out.Doyle’s son Todd had obviously been well taught on the value of 8-9-T-T and he doubled up on my table with the very same hand. As the student rather than the teacher, Todd had to wait to hit his ten before he put all his chips into the pot. I managed to mostly avoid the flying fruit from the Simian hordes and made it through to the second day's play.
With 55 players remaining from an initial field of 314 the prize money ranges from $22,137 for 36th place, up to $768,889 for first - I will be hoping to get lucky. On day two of the Omaha event I started with around 65,000 chips and a chip average of about 110,000. Although short-stacked in comparison to most other players in relation to blinds of 1500/3000 I was not under pressure and still able to play poker rather than gamble like a gibbon (which some larger stacked players apparently felt obliged or preferred to do).
I built my stack up to about 120,000 without putting myself in much danger and then the pivotal hand for me occurred. A player under the gun raised to 12,000 and the next player re-raised, effectively all-in for about 60,000. I looked at my hand and I had A-A-K-3 with one flush draw. Now many players would say, probably quite rightly in most cases, that to fold such a hand against what would almost certainly be one player (particularly if I re-raise) would be bordering on cowardice. I thought about folding on the basis that I had built up my stack by playing poker and playing small pots on flops and re-acting to other players activity, whereas this was a situation where I would be putting half my stack into the pot against what would probably be a hand which I was either not favourite to win (if he had the other two aces and two random cards) or a 60% favourite (if he had a genuine playable hand of most types).
My primary goal at this point in the tournament was to reach the money and guarantee $22,137 and the chip stack I had would virtually ensure this at it was. So to gain additional chips would make me more comfortable but the potential loss of chips would leave under pressure and the loss would certainly be more significant than the gain even if I was a 60% favourite. It is a very important concept that all poker players should be aware of and although it does not occur very often, sometimes it is wise to fold even when you believe you are holding the best hand at the time.
Anyway, I decided, probably wrongly (in view of the above not because of the end result), that I could not fold this hand and I re-raised all-in and everyone folded except the initial re-raiser. His hand was a nice looking (particularly for me) A-K-J-J. The flop was Q-9-4 and then he hit a Ten for a straight and he won the pot.
I was now under pressure to even make the money and I was moved to a table including John Duthie, Tim Phan, Andy Bloch and Scotty Nguyen. I played quite carefully, as were most of the other players, and managed to get into the last 36 players, without much danger and thus ensuring $22,137.
The very next hand Scotty Nguyen limps and it is folded to me in the big blind holding K-K-2-2. The flop is a nice looking 2-3-J. I check, he bets (as expected as he had done nearly every time it was checked to him in position) and I re-rasied all-in. He actually managed to get his chips into the pot before me and turned over quite a nice paduki hand of 4-5-6-9 all different suites.He hit an Ace on the turn to make a straight and I did not hit my full house on the river and I was out in 36th. I had been under pressure for a long time and my only goal had been to reach the money. Even though I achieved that when I actually was knocked out, only one hand later, I was extremely disappointed.The European Omaha players are, on the whole, much better and more experienced at assessing the relative strength of Omaha hands than the Americans are and even the 'top names' from America who are well known at Hold'Em tend to play Omaha as if it were four card Hold'Em (and some quite poorly even if it were). There were numerous better European Omaha players in the field than me and I guess they were even more disappointed than I was.
For the top European Omaha Players like Dave Colclough, Richard Ashby and Ram Vaswani it must have been quite nasty to have been beaten by technically inferior American players, but then the possibility of gambling or playing badly and still succeeding is one of the natural elements in poker. For the record, the event was won by American Robert Mizrachi who is a very good poker player and probably one of the more likely Omaha winners from the American ranks.
Next I played what I call the $1,500 entry Chimpanzee Fixed Limit Hold em Shoot-out and I experienced a combination of very bad luck and significant poor play from me as I attempted to chimp my opponents and received the spanking I rightly deserved.
I should have known I was in for a torrid time after the first hand. I limped with J-Q and the flop was J-6-7. The player in the small blind and I conceived the cunning plan of calling his bet with a view to re-raising him on the turn. The turn was a 4 and he bet, Ire-raised and he called. The river card was a beautiful Q - he bet, I re-raised and he just called so I knew I had won the hand (if he had better than top two pair he would surely re-raise again).
I triumphantly showed my top two pair, opponent showed his 8-5. Now this is the best possible hand in this scenario and to simply flat call exceeded the gibbon like activity even I had expected. I looked at his hand, back to the flop, back to his hand just to make sure I was not seeing things. Naturally the other players around the table would be amazed and shocked at this outrageous play (it is apparently actually regarded as cheating and collusion and potentially subject to a penalty if you simply call a bet when holding the absolute best hand).
There was not a flicker of emotion or even mild surprise from any other player. I can only assume they were too busy thinking about various tropical fruits to have noticed.
I later had three occasions where I had both a straight and flush draw and missed all my draws and ended up leaving the tournament shortly after level one. In terms of a players normal playing style in relation to time played I must have achieved the fastest exit from a limit tournament in the history of the World Series and I was further disappointed that I did not receive any form of trophy, bracelet or other reward for achieving this feat in the Chimpanzee event.
For the record Ram Vaswani won his first and well deserved World Series Bracelet in this event which proves that a truly world class poker player can prevail in any poker environment, even the gibbon infested habitat that is a fixed limit tournament.
to be continued...