WSOP 2006 Las Vegas, NV

I cashed in a WSOP bracelet event today!!! OK. It wasn’t a lot of money, but what a treasure of memories. Get ready for the bragging. I made it because of the chips I took from Phil Hellmuth.

Details first, then the stories.

Event #43 - $1,500 No-Limit Texas Hold’em on August 7, 2006
Finished 44th out of a field of 420 players (paid to 45th place)
Money won: $1,720
Started at 11:00 am
In the Money at 8:21 pm
Eliminated at 8:40 pm

I took Seat 8 at Table 22 in the Amazon room to find the following players at the table:

Seat 1 – Unknown player
Seat 2 – The Shaker – The guy in the 2005 WSOP main event video whose hands were shaking in a hand with Phil Ivey.
Seat 3 – Girl in Pigtails
Seat 4 – Nice lady who ended up being one of the 3 original members of Table 22 to cash
Seat 5 – Jason, nice guy who ended up being one of the 3 original members of 22 to cash
Seat 6 – Unknown player
Seat 7 – Minh Ly, professional player who finished 7th in the $10,000 WSOP circuit event at Bally’s Nov. 19, 2005
Seat 8 – James A. D. also one of the 3 original members of Table 22 to cash
Seat 9 – Unknown player
Seat 10 – Doug Lee, professional player who finished 3rd in the $10,000 WSOP circuit event at Bally’s Nov. 19, 2005

I am writing down the stories which follow to help me remember this event. They come from notes I took as the hands were being played during the tournament. That said, here’s more than you will ever need to know about my adventures in Event #43:

At 10:50 am I’m sitting in my seat waiting to start at 11:00 am and this Asian looking guy comes to seat 7 and a floor guy is talking to him and asking him how he’s doing and he says he lost $650,000 last night. Hmmmmm…….

This other sort of Asian looking guy takes Seat 10 and starts talking to the guy in Seat 7 and asks him “Where’s your cowboy hat?” The guy in Seat 7 is a little hard to understand as his English isn’t great, so I don’t really hear exactly what they are saying.

I am on the button in an early hand (blinds 25/50) and I bet 125 to steal the blinds, Seat 10 is the big blind and he accuses me of trying to steal and I thought he was about to move all-in, but he folds. Whew! He tries his best to get it out of me what I had, but I won't say.

In the Amazon room where this event is being played, in addition to all the screens that have the clocks and statistics for the events being played, there are huge TV screens with sports and, you guessed it, past poker events being televised. One the screen adjacent to our table 22, they are televising the WSOP circuit event held a few months ago at Bally’s. And there is the guy in Seat 7 in a cowboy hat and the guy in Seat 10 playing in the event. Turns out this is Minh Ly and Doug Lee, professional poker players. It was a little surreal watching these two play on TV while playing against them on my table. They were talking about and explaining the hands as they were shown on TV while we were playing. I really had to focus to keep my attention on the game on Table 22.

Doug Lee is picked off by another player with pocket 33 after a while.

In one hand, Minh Ly raises to 150 under the gun and I raise to 600 with pocket 10’s and everyone folds back to him and then he folds. This is early in the tournament and we had only started with 1500 in chips and the blinds were 25/50 at the time.

By the end of the second level, I had 3025 chips. Soon after the break after level 2, at 2:38 pm, we were down to 200 players (out of 420 starting). I have 3100 in chips then.

At 2:40 pm it is announced that Humberto Brenes, Jack’s table-mate in the main event, is eliminated from the main event with 36 players left. (The main event is also going on in the Amazon room while we are playing our tournament.) Huge media coverage over by the main event and most of the spectators are over there.

At 2:49 pm, Minh Ly is eliminated from our tournament with a short stack of 600 going all-in with A7 offsuit to call a larger bet. The original bettor has AQ offsuit and neither player gets any help from the board.

At 3:00 pm, I have KQ suited in spades and I called the 200 big blind and we have a family pot of 6 players in for 20 each. Two spades (one the 5 of spades) in the flop and I bet 1200 and get an all-in call from a guy with only 2000 left. Everyone folds but me and I call the additional 800. He has pocket 5’s and the turn and the river don’t produce a spade, so my stack is mortally wounded. On the very next hand, I call an all-in from a short stack with pocket 9’s and he turns up AKoffsuit. I win when a 9 shows up in the flop. I now have 1700 chips.

Soon after that, in the next hand I play, with pocket 4’s, I bet 700 from the cut-off to steal the blinds and the small blind calls all-in with 650 chips. He was playing A3 and got an Ace. Ouch!

Soon after that, in the next hand I play, after the 200 big blind is called by the guy on my right (who replaced Minh Ly) from early position, I go all-in for my 1050 chips with AQoffsuit and he calls with pocket 6’s for a little less than my bet. It’s a 2400 chip pot. I bad beat him when QQ88 showed up on the board making me a full house. This is at 3:10 pm.

To replace the guy I knocked out, in comes Phil Hellmuth, Jr. with about 1500 chips. He walks around the table and shakes everyone’s hands. Phil wins 500 or so chips in a hand with another player and so he has maybe 2000 chips to my 2400 now.

Next hand or so, Phil is on the button and I’m in the big blind which is 200 now. Phil bets 600 from the button and I go all-in with K-10 of diamonds. Phil asks me if I would do that with KQ or something like that and I stare at the pot and ignore him as he questions me. Finally, I look up and ask “Are you talking to me?” He then asks, “You wouldn’t bluff the best poker player in the world, would you?” He folds and shows an Ace as he folds. He wants to know what I had, but I refuse to tell.

Some more hands and I am getting short-stacked again and I go all-in with K8 hearts. I am called by AJoffsuit, but get an 8 and win with a pair of 8’s.

At the next short break, I am back to 2850 chips which is still more than Phil, although, he has won a couple of hands with other players.

After the break, Phil gets up to 5500 chips when he bets 600 and then calls all-in with 88 when The Shaker raises him larger than Phil’s remaining stack. The Shaker has AK and Phil wins when another 8 comes on the turn even though the guy hits an Ace on the flop.

OK, here comes the big hand. It’s 22 minutes before the dinner break. Blinds are 150/300 with a 25 ante. Two limpers before Phil and Phil limps in from the button. I go all-in with my 2500 or so chips from the big blind with Hallelujah!!!! POCKET ACES and it is folded back to Phil who almost immediately calls with AQoffsuit. Another Ace flops and I end up with a full house. His chip stack is crippled and I more than double up because of the other limpers and the small blind to 5900 chips or so. He says because I played that K8 earlier, he was cocked and ready for me, but ended up shooting himself in the foot.

Next hand or so, I put Phil all-in after he makes a 600 raise and he folds. (I have QQ.) He has been telling people what they have, etc. and just being Phil, so when he folds, I ask him if he wants to take a shot at guessing what I have, and he says “Just throw them in face down.”, so I do. The very next hand, Phil is in the, by now, 300 big blind and I raise to 1650 with the AK hearts and the whole table sort of gasps and a guy says incredulously “He’s raising Phil’s big blind!!” It was too funny. Phil folds.

He continues to talk about these hands and the first hand he folded to me. He is none too happy with me, but in a nice way - at least he acknowledges that I have the goods when I play a hand. He is not so respectful of some of the other players.

At 5:52 pm we get our dinner break and I have 7,350 chips (mostly from Phil) and his stack is in bad shape. Phil is eliminated in the very first hand after the dinner break by another player when he goes all-in with AQ unsuited and is called by a player with pocket Jacks. To add insult to injury, another Jack comes in the flop. We had returned from our dinner break at 7:00 pm.

At 7:16 pm I am moved to Table 21, Seat 10. In Seat 9 is Cycalona “Clonie” Gowen. She is this gorgeous professional poker player. Very friendly and personable. She has a short stack when I come to the table (I have at least twice as many chips as her), but soon she doubles up and wins a couple of pots and has a pretty good stack.

We are down to 50 players or so and I have about 5000 chips. The blinds are 300/600 with a 75 ante. I am determined to make it to the money. I fold, fold, fold. I fold pocket 7’s and pocket 4’s. I fold AQ hearts. (Thank goodness I did, because that hand played out and I would have lost.).

At 8:21 pm we are down to 45 players and we are in the money. I have 2750 chips left. Another player is eliminated. I actually steal the blinds once, but then move all-in soon after with I think KQ hearts, but I can’t swear that was my hand. Anyway, a guy with a mega-stack calls me with an Ace in his hand and the board doesn’t help either of us. So, at 8:40 pm, I finish in 44th place and win $1,720. The money did not increase again until 36th place and I had to make a move or get blinded out anyway.

So goes the story of my cashing in a WSOP bracelet event in the very first World Series of Poker I ever played in. I am a very lucky guy to have had this opportunity. Thanks to everyone who helped make this possible, including but not limited to: the members of the Houston Hold’em Club and all of my other poker buddies, my friend and money-partner in this event (Jerry) and last (but certainly not least in his own mind) Phil Hellmuth, Jr., a nice guy no matter what anybody says about him.