I arrived in Vegas on Wednesday still unsure about which day I’d be starting.  It would either be Thursday, Friday, or Saturday.  After I got settled in to my hotel room, I headed straight for the Rio to finish my registration.  When I got there, I really couldn’t believe my eyes.  Before you could even get to the tournament room you had to pass through a huge convention center devoted entirely to poker.  It looked like the auto show; except instead of cars there were poker booths advertising everything from online card rooms to gambling magazines to poker apparel.  The other major difference was the girls.  Every single booth had hired models/strippers to sell their product.  I honestly didn’t know if I was at a poker tournament or a porno convention. 

 After walking through the convention for a while, I finally made it to the registration booth.  The lady gave me my confirmation and said I would be playing on Friday.  Perfect.  That’s exactly when I wanted to start.  That would give me a chance to scope out day 1A, the following day, and hopefully kill some of the nervous feeling I was experiencing.  Before I left, I decided to give a peak at the tournament room and when I saw it, I was shocked.  It seemed like there were thousands of tables.  It was the biggest room I’d ever seen.  And, to think, this room would only hold a third of the players in the tournament!  On my way back out through the convention center, I noticed a guy up ahead in a motorized wheel chair looking at me.  As I got closer, I realized it was Doyle Brunson.  I walked up and talked to him for a while about the World Series and poker in general.  I was shocked by how nice and open he was.  I thought it was really cool that he was willing to talk and not just give me the brush-off.  So, that was a nice welcome to the WSOP. 

 The next day, I went back to the Rio to watch the action again.  It was absolutely nuts.  There were just fewer than 2000 players starting Thursday and probably twice as many spectators.  There were camera crews and huge microphones following every one of the top pros so, they were very easy to spot.  I spent some time watching Barry Greenstein and Chris “Jesus” Ferguson play.  I also watched some of the celebrities play like: Brad Garret, Shannon Elizabeth (who made it to day 2), and some others.  All in all, I wasn’t all that impressed with the poker being played.  When you watch these guys play on TV, they just show the great hands and great moves and you forget that there are hours and hours of straight forward poker.  That seemed to calm me down a bit so; I went back to my hotel for a little R & R.  Playing day—the day I had been waiting for, for what seemed like forever, finally came.  I got over to the Rio at about 10:30 as we would be starting at 11.  The feelings of calm I was experiencing the day before were gone.  My nerves were in full swing.  I walked to my starting table and was the second person to arrive.  There was a guy sitting in the 4 seat who looked exactly like Jerry Garcia with a big smile on his face.  We started talking and he said that he’d been playing in this tournament for 20 years.  He seemed to calm me down a bit, or at the very least distract me.  Finally, it was time to start.

After the National Anthem, I heard the famous line, “Shuffle Up and Deal!”  The first hand I was dealt was a 5-2 off suit.  “Thank God,” I thought, and folded with a smile.  The next hand I folded again after someone raised and was a little surprised when the guy on my left re-raised.  The original raiser then, immediately, re-raised and the guy on my left said, “All in.”  The first guy called without even thinking about it.  I knew before the cards were even turned—aces vs. kings.  The aces held up and the original raiser was out after two hands.  That’s $10,000 for three minutes of fun—wow. 

 After I won my first hand, I started to get really comfortable.  I wasn’t playing too many hands; my table began to see me as conservative.  I used this to my advantage and started to steal a bunch of small pots.  This is exactly what I wanted to do as I didn’t want to play any big pots.  The guy sitting to my right was playing really loose and wasn’t very good so, I was able to take some of his chips.  Unfortunately, he lost a big pot to someone so, when he went all in with his pocket 10s, he only had 1,000 chips left.  It was an easy call for me with pocket kings and I had my first WSOP knockout.  That hand put me up to about 14,500 and I felt like I was cruising.  I was above average at my table and felt like I had good control of the table.  Then, the bad news came.  They were breaking our table.  They do this to fill in spots at other tables to make those tables full.  When I got to my next table I was less than thrilled to see three guys with well over $20,000 in chips.

 My plan was to try to wait and try to get a read on these new players.  I couldn’t wait too long as we were already four hours into the tournament and blinds were starting to get bigger.  My plan didn’t work out too well though because I was getting decent cards.  The problem with this table was that every time I limped in (just call the big blind) or came in for a small raise, one of the big stacks came over the top with a big re-raise and forced me to fold.  This seemed to go on forever.  Then on big hand came up.  I got ace-king in middle position and made it 400 to go.  One guy to my left called the raise and the big blind looked at his cards and appeared to have seen a ghost.  He thought for a while and then re-raised to 1400.  I didn’t like it.  A lot of amateurs would go all-in in this spot, but this felt different.  I decided to call and was relatively happy to see a flop of A-Q-9.  I wasn’t happy, however, when the raiser led out with a 4000 chip bet.  You got to be kidding!  4000?  With about 9000 left in chips, that was almost half my stack.  I definitely smelled a rat.  The way he originally looked at his cards led me to believe he had aces, kings, queens, or jacks.  Two of those hands have me dominated and two of those hands are way behind me.  So, the way I figure it, is I’m 50/50.  Could I find a better spot to put all my money in?  With 9000 left I felt that I could.  So, I folded.  Writing this, two weeks later, I am still dying to know what he had.

 With about 8000 chips and the blinds getting big, my chance finally came.  The guy to my right who started the hand with 5000 in chips raised to 2500—kind of a strange raise, but when I looked down at wired aces, I didn’t give it another thought.  “All in,” I said.  When everyone folded to the guy on my right and he smiled as if he’d been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.  He then turned to me and said that he didn’t have enough chips left to fold and proceeded to call.  Alright, I thought, about $15000 in the pot.  He then turns over a king and a 9!  OK, whatever, deal the cards: K-9-4.  My heart sank.  Next card is a 2.  Now, I need an A, 4, or 2 to win.  Queen.  Great.  I waited an hour for a big chance after that A-K hand and I lose with pocket aces to K-9.  Now, I’m down to 4000.  Two hands later, I’m dealt 10-8 in the big blind and see a flop of 10-10-8 with one other player.  I check and he bets and I immediately go all in.  He calls with A-10.  He has 3 outs.  The 3 remaining aces in the deck gives him a higher full house than me.  He doesn’t get one and I’m back to 8,000.

 Right after that hand my table broke again and I was off to a new table.  I was kind of happy about that because I hated that second table.  New life!  The play at my third table was much of the same—lots of big stacks and lots of raises.  At this point, being short stacked, I really only had one move.  So, I waited for a good chance and it came.  With the blinds at 100-200 and five people already limped in, I looked down from the button at pocket jacks.  Here we go.  All in.  The big blind thinks for a second and then calls in an unnecessarily dramatic fashion.  He flips over A-K.  Almost 17,000 in the pot.  This will really get me going, I think.  Before the cameras can even get over to the table after the dealer yells, “All-in 51,” the flop comes A-A-7.  With no help on the turn or the river, I’m out.  Dreams are crushed. 

 They don’t even give you a place on day one.  There were about 900 out already so, I was close.  650 people made it to day 2 so, I guess I missed it by about 300.  I played for almost 8 hours.  I played as good as I could have.  Basically, just got unlucky, but that’s poker.  I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything and am very grateful to have been there.  Until next time—take care and good luck.

xrokpoker@yahoomail.com

By Chris Stuart