More musings from the Master.
You can read the whole 9 yards - well, 20 days - in one lump either here.....
http://www.blondepoker.com/PokerStories2005wosp2.htmOr here....
www.poker425.comBut hey, it's hot off the press, so give them a few hours to upload it.
Day 14 & Day 15 June 16th and June 17th I do quite well in one table satellites so I fancied my chances in the 1500 Limit Shootout and the 1500 No Limit Shootout. They are basically one table satellites followed by all the winners playing another one table satellite. Unfortunately, it wasnt to be though. I was 5th in the Limit and 3rd in my No Limit table. I was a little unfortunate in both but we wont go into any more bad beat whinging for a while. I promise.
During the NLH shootout there was a bit of argy bargy at the table. Handbags at 10 paces but one of the trouble makers (the one who had just lost the pot) made the mistake of using the F word. Now this all used to be part and parcel of the game. Not so in the new, cleaner, whiter than white poker world. He was immediately sent to the penalty box for 10 minutes much to the disgust of the rest of the table. We wanted him at the table while he was steaming. We certainly didnt want him cooling off, just for the price of a few measly antes. He had a big stack he could murder!
Day 16 June 18th. The $2500 Limit Holdem event went remarkably similarly to the previous Limit Hold em event. I got off to a great start, at one point winning a huge pot with a set of Jacks. As we got down close to the last 50 players though, the hands dried up again. I lost a couple of coin flip AQ v 10s and A10 v KQ and that was it. Just outside the money again, and nothing to show for 10 hours hard labour. Tomorrow thoughis Omaha again!
Day 17 June 19th. The highlights of the day were probably non poker incidents. Seeing the quiet inoffensive Asher Derei mutter a swear word under his breath, cursing himself was most unusual. You would have got long odds on him getting the 10 minute penalty which cost him his chances of making a WSOP final table. Conversely, Phil Hellmuth was in top poker brat form, throwing a chair across the room at one point. He did get a stern look from a supervisor, but no swear word, no penalty.
My $1500 Omaha event started well getting a huge stack early, before I ran into fellow Stokie Paul Maxfield. Having called his pre-flop re-raise, I was 100% certain he had Aces and that he would lead out for the rest of his stack. I loved a 665 flop, which matched the 6 in my hand, and Paul did exactly what was expected. He moved all in, and the cunning plan was working perfectly, so I called. An Ace on the turn though, soon wiped the smile off my face. This huge pot saw Paul through to the final table though, and I hope he goes on to win in tomorrow.
Day 18 June 20th. Paul Maxfield finished 6th in the Omaha final. One better than me than me in the previous Omaha final, but Ill still give him stick on the golf course for wasting my chips. Thats if we dare to go out in this searing heat.
I had the pleasure of playing with Tuan Le (2005 WPT Champion) and Barry Greenstein in the $5,000 Pot Limit Holdem. Barry was playing two tables at once: 5000 PLH and the Omaha final. Barry won the Omaha final to secure another bracelet, and outlasted me in the Holdem. I spent a couple of hours watching Mr.Le re-raise with Q9, 83 and other similar monsters and decided I wasnt going to be passing against him. So when he re-raised my AQ suited, I happily moved in. Needless to say, he flipped over Big Slick and I didnt get lucky.
Day 19 June 21st . The day of the big match. A day off was well overdue. The sun was beating down on the Angel Park Palms golf course, and the Stokies were about to do battle. As much as I would have liked to walk round the course, Paul Maxfield is a fair bit older than me. So buggies were a must in the lazy 110 degree heat.
Maxfield professes to be a 12 handicapper and El Gringo sorry El Blondie, was claiming 28. After lulling Paul into a false sense of security, dropping the odd hole behind, big bertha began to burn the short course up (even covering my inadequacies around the green). A 5 and 4 thrashing perhaps wasnt too clever, from a handicap point of view, but boy I enjoyed it.
We were only playing for the evening meal at Michaels in the Barbary Coast. $1,000 for four people! Whoops. What a shame? Dear me, never mind. (Well he did just win 1.7 million dollars in the Bellagio last month. He can afford it.) I think the days of claiming a 28 handicap are over though.
Day 20 June 22nd. I can only describe this as one of the most remarkable days in my poker life. I was playing in a $1500 No Limit Holdem event with over 2000 entrants, whilst a good friend of mine Brian Wilson, was playing in the final of the $5000 Pot Limit Holdem. Two Brits, Steve Lucky Liu and John Gale, were also in the final.
My allegiance was with Brian though, who I had befriended last year in Estonia. He had only just started playing but wanted to learn fast. He decided I was to be his mentor, and bombarded me with emails and questions for months on end. The Rookies progress had been very fast, but surely he couldnt win a bracelet.
As I built good chips in my NLH event, the lemmings were falling thick and fast around me and Brian was gathering chips as he was knocking out the big names at the final table. I didnt even notice myself sliding into the money (only my second cash of this years series), because Brian had just knocked the favourite, Allen Cunningham out, with an unbelievable call.
Eventually he was heads up with John Gale and things began to run badly. Having started heads up play practically level, John now had over 80%. Brian needed to river a 5 for a straight to stay alive. Over it came and Brian doubled up. He flopped a set next hand, and they were level again. The momentum had shifted, Brian now had control and so it continued until the unthinkable happened. My rookie won the 2005 WSOP $5,000 Pot Limit Holdem tournament, $371,000 and a gold bracelet. Tomorrow he starts to give me lessons.
(Oh. As a footnote I crashed out of the NLH event in 101st place collecting $2,800. I wasted an excellent chip stack putting them all in with AQ against the chip leaders AK. Its a good job Brian will start tutoring me now.)
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