Big Loss in Monte Carlo

Date: 2007.04.30 | Category: Hand Of The Week | By: Phil Hellmuth   

A few weeks ago, I went to Monte Carlo to play in the European Poker Tour (EPT) Championship event. It was a $10,000 buy-in poker tournament, and we had almost 700 runners play, with a first prize of 1.8 million Euros (more than $2 million). I was excited to be there, and pumped up to play some great poker. But before we get to the tournament, let me admit that I had the biggest loss of my life over there.

While I was walking through the famous lobby of the Hotel de Paris, I ran into Patrick Antonius and Phil Ivey. I am always looking for good energy, and I thought that it might be a good omen that the Hotel de Paris had PH logo hats and PH logo bathrobes. Antonius and Ivey were playing Chinese poker, which is like flipping coins in that there isn’t much skill involved in the game. I sat down and joined them, but requested that we play for “only” $1,000 a point. When I was down 76 points, I asked to play for $2,000 a point. A few hours later, Antonius quit, and we went to Ivey’s suite to order room service (they wouldn’t serve us in the lobby) while we played. Things got ugly, and by 10 a.m. I was forced to quit, down a whopping $536,000.