WPBT December 2004

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Ok, so it seems I�m not the first one to get out my World Poker Blogger Tourney trip report (damn you Pauly, Felicia, and FlipChipPro).

I�m not really sure to start but to say �Wow!� This was really an amazing event and I can�t say enough about everybody who was involved. Not in any particular order but thanks to Check N� Raise for the jackets and sponsoring the event. Thanks to All In Poker for the prizes for the final table (though I didn�t get any . . . . more on that later). Thanks for Dick Gatewood and Sam�s Town for running such a killer tournament. Thanks to the Poker Prof for lining up the pro players and all the other help he gave Pauly in organizing the event. Thanks to the pros for showing up and making this a very special event. Also a thanks should go out to everyone who attended. I�ve been reading the writings of many of you folks for some time now and it was exciting just to get to meet people in the flesh. And last, but certainly not least, thanks go out to Pauly for putting together one of the best amateur events I�ve ever seen.

Now, back to the trip report . . . I fly out of LAX around 6:30pm on Friday after work. I touch down in Vegas and grab a taxi for the hotel. Once I get settled in I gave Pauly a call and head over to the Excalibur poker room to meet up with the crew. I try to get seated with everyone else but no luck on that front and I�m on a spread limit $2/$6 table with some Josh Arieh wannbe. Somehow I was spared his taunting which is a good thing because I would have buried the smug little prick with my own analysis of his chuckleheaded moves. I mean the guy was so easy to read it was almost comical. I limp in from MP and he limps after me. Three other players limp and the button raises it $6 to go. Now, the second he limped I knew he was going to try and limp re-raise (the guy never limped into a hand) so when the bet got back to me I tossed my cards into the muck. On their way to the muck the cards hit the chips in the center of the table and they flipped face up AJo. You could see the shock on the other player�s faces and I just turned to the Arieh wannabe and said, �Go ahead and re-raise. It was worth $6 but I�m not paying $12 with AJo.�

Once he left I started accumulating chips fairly rapidly and went from a one rack buy-in to 3 full racks fairly quickly. But that was it. At some point I decided it was almost unfair that the games were this soft so I decided to handicap myself by getting good and drunk. I couldn�t win any more after that but I wasn�t loosing either so I ended up sticking around until 7:30am and was at the same three racks I had been at, at around 2am.

So, doing the math here, I left Excalibur at 7:30am. Actually it was later than that because I stopped off to put something in my belly to soak up the booze. I roll into the hotel room around 8:30 and set the alarm for 9:30 so I can make the breakfast seminar. Yes, that�s one hour sleep and when I stepped into the shower my eyes were burning from lack of sleep. I made it down to the breakfast seminar on time and start alternating back and forth between coffee and water. I needed the coffee to stay awake and I needed the water to overcome the alcohol-fueled dehydration.

The seminar was a bit of an experience. I recognized Felicia from her blog photos and obviously having met Pauly and a few of the other gang the night before I knew a few other faces but for the most part this was our first actual conversations. And in the middle of all this are Ron Rose, Charlie Shoten and Tom McEvoy shooting the shit with us. I didn�t really get to speak much with Charlie or Tom but Ron was at the table with a few of us and told us about how things have evolved since he became involved with poker and what inspired him to write Poker Aces which he brought free copies of for all of us.

Maudie made my day with her World Poker Blogger Tour custom t-shirts. That will get some wear!

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A little while later Kirill Gerasimov and Marcel Luske walk in and hang out with us a bit. I got to talk to Kirill while grabbing yet another glass of that cool, refreshing water but I missed speaking with Marcel. He was one of my favorite players in the 2004 WSOP. Just before the actual seminar kicked off Evelyn Ng and Max Pescatori popped in too.

Charlie Shoten gave an excellent presentation on some ideas behind his soon to be published book. I thought it was interesting because it was really about lessons you could use in any part of your life. The main premise seems to be that much of what you become in poker (and in life) is based on how you think about things. If you can feed your mind with helpful ways to approach situations you�re far more likely to get positive outcomes.

Tom McEvoy skipped with the formal presentation and just opened it up to questions. There seemed to be a lot of discussion about the newer internet-type players and various strategies on how to play them in tournaments. I think that a lot of Tom�s responses were things we had all learned the hard way already but it�s always helpful when you hear a pro confirm it.

evelyn_ron.jpgUnfortunately, Tom, Ron, Marcel, Kirill, and Evelyn couldn�t hang with us for the actual tournament. They were all playing in some small Four Diamonds thingy over at the Bellagio. But we did get Max and Charlie to play and at the first break I sneaked a peek at their table and the two large stacks were sitting in front of both players. Hmmm . . . skill might just have something to do with your results in this game.

How did I do? Well, I didn�t even make the first break. Hell, I was the first one out. Not really a bad beat but I should have taken more of Charlie�s presentation to heart because one of his points specifically addressed the mistake I made. I limped in with QJo in MP. A few more people limp in and Al Can�t Hang raises it to $250. Now, the blinds are only $25/$50 so I�m thinking about what that size bet might mean. Is he just trying to pick off a bunch of limpers with weak hands? Five times the big blind is a bit of an overbet at this early stage in the tournament so I figure him for AK. AA and KK crossed my mind but I was guessing that if he had either one of those hands he would raise it up enough so he would get plenty of callers and then move all in if the board didn�t seem to help anybody.

Flop comes QTx. I check and he pushes all in. I�ve got top pair with an ok kicker and a potential backdoor straight. This is exactly the situation I hate being in, in NL poker. You�ve got a good hand but somebody is showing a lot of strength. That could mean they have a monster or they have a vulnerable hand and they�re hoping you aren�t willing to gamble. I�m going to blame it on the lack of sleep and the fact that Al Can�t Hand had been drinking whisky for breakfast. I just thought he was on AK and was overplaying his hand. I called and he flips up AQ. The rest of the hand tells itself.

Dumb move? Yes. Would I do it again? No. Why did I do it? Despite all of the rationalization above, I have no clue. Hell, I�m usually the tightest guy at the table in tournaments. Often, I won�t even limp with hands like QJo until later in the match when the tables start getting short-handed. Oh well, lesson learned. But, I did get a bounty for being the first out so not all was bad. Ok, maybe a copy of Gigli is worse than nothing at all

maxp.jpgThe upside is that it did put me in the position to watch Charlie, Max, and Felicia play which was well worth the price of admission. All three are just amazing players and it was a complete pleasure to watch them play. Max was especially fun to watch because he was also offering friendly advice on some hands.

I will have to say that I was completely blown away by Julie. First time tournament player and she made the final three. Man, that girl can play. I was standing behind her where I could see her hole cards for part of the final table and she was vicious. Absolutely no fear whatsoever about betting into two pros with . . . NOTHING! Not in a reckless way though. She was playing solidly but she was certainly not going to let two pros push her around on the table.

The tourney ended around five�ish with Max and Felicia doing a deal when it got heads-up between them and Felicia finally gaining the crown with her K7 all-in. Daddy and I grabbed some grub afterwards and I think everyone went back to their hotel rooms to try and catch some sleep.

I headed back out to Excalibur around 9pm with about 2 hours more sleep under my belt and got on a $2/$6 spread limit table with some of the same guys I had at my table the night before. The main exception was this cowboy who, and I kid you not, had a poker cheat sheet with him at the table. I caught a glimpse of it and it had advice like �Remember the importance of position.� Of course, he didn�t follow any of the rules and bet like a drunken sailor. I ended up losing about $40 before Pauly asked if I wanted to jump over to his table. Unfortunately, I pointed to the wrong table when I asked the floorman for a table change and ended up with BadBlood at the $100 NL table. No biggie though. Had some fun. Ended up about even.

I did get to throw the hammer out there though. Unfortunately it ended up a split pot. I had the BB with 72o. The flop comes 772. I can barely hold the excitement in and try my best to look unimpressed as I check it. It gets to BadBlood and I look up and there�s a gleam in his eye that says he�s going to bluff at it. He stares me down a bit and then checks. Turn brings a J. It gets checked around and the SB bets $15. I call and everyone folds. The river is another 2 and the SB goes all-in. I call and he flips up something like 97 giving us both sevens full of twos.

I called it quits around 2am. I had a 10am flight back home but I wanted to swing by the poker room at Bellagio to see what was going on down there. Holy smokes!!!! It was poker pro�s wall to wall. One of the tournaments was still going on so in this roped off area you had John Juanda and Howard Lederer playing a NL cash game heads-up. Daniel Negreanu holding court at one of the unused tables where Jennifer Harman came over to join him. Allen Cunningham was also chilling out. I thought I caught Layne Flack at the far end of the roped off area. Kenna James was chatting with some buddies. Kirill was in the middle of a game as was Erick E-Dog Lindgren, Greg Raymer, Alan Goehring, and Mike Sexton. Paul �Eskimo� Clark was also on the scene. There were also a ton of other pros who I�ve seen before but can�t remember their names off the top of my head. All in all, well worth the 2am walk down the strip.

Got back to the room around 5am, slept until 7, checked out at 8 and was home by noon. And that boys and girls was my weekend. Now I must sleep.

UPDATE: Here’s a list of other trip reports.

Pauly’s (of course): Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 The brawl

Tourney winner, Felicia’s post Felecia has added to her postings with some in-depth analysis. Part 1 Part 2

Glenn (with pics) Glenn has another photo essay.

FoiledCoup

FlipChipro

The Poker Prof’s take on things The Poker Prof talks about organizing such an event

Maudie’s just off the plane home post Day 1, Day 2

CJ Tells Tales From Vegas Part 2

HDouble shares his reads on other players

Iggy’s report — Warning: Iggy’s weekend involved blackouts and a hired dwarf. 🙂

Daddy’s home

Mas – Just home, Day 1, Day 2

Asphnxma/FTrain – Day 1, Day 2, Final thoughts

If I’ve missed any, please give me a shout and let me know!

10 thoughts on “WPBT December 2004”

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  2. Bill,

    It was good to meet you, glad you could make it out 🙂

    Thanks for the write-up, too. There were a bunch of things that you mentioned that I forgot.

    ~Glenn

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