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Bicycle Club WPT Event
The recent Bicycle Club $10,000 buy-in Championship event in Los Angeles on the World Poker Tour (WPT) began at 2 p.m. I, of course, arrived at 4:30 pm. Whereas most of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) tournaments that I played in this year featured absolutely no one that I knew at my starting table, in this cozy event — there were still 450 players — I had great players Erik Seidel and David Chiu at my starting table. Because of the relatively low number of entrants in this tournament — compared to 2,000 in most WSOP events — the field seemed like it was filled with top professional poker players.
I was off to a fast start when I raised it up with J-J, my lone opponent had 7-7, and the flop came down J-9-7. In poker parlance, I had flopped set-over-set. Of course, my opponent lost all of his remaining $13,000 in chips to me in this hand, and my chip stack crossed the $30,000 mark — we started out with $20,000 in chips. It wasn’t like I played the hand great or did anything special, in fact there was not a lot of skill in this scenario, but I’ll take a lucky hand like this one anytime! This hand called to mind the fact that the last tournament hand that I had played in Los Angeles — in February at another WPT event — I went broke when I had the other side of the set-over-set scenario (my 3-3 versus his 6-6 on a J-6-3 flop).
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Camp Hellmuth and Pocket Jacks
I have now done three of my fantasy camps — Camp Hellmuth — at Caesars Palace, with CH III being the last one for at least a few years. The response at each of them was amazing! The comment cards were an absolute joke, with everyone raving about what a good time they had, how much they learned, how cool it was to hang out with Antonio Esfandiari, Michael “The grinder” Mizrachi, Evelyn Ng, Scott Fishman, Mark Seif, and former FBI agent Joe Navarro. I am proud of the fact that each camp had such a good energy surrounding it, and that everyone had so much fun.
A few weeks ago, at CH III, I decided to spice up our main tournament a bit, and get the pros committed to playing their best poker — for the camper’s sakes. Knowing that the pros couldn’t win any of the prize money in our tournament, I made last-longer bets with Mizrachi, Fishman, Esfandiari, and UltimateBet.com online pros “Sean Rice,” “Krazy Kanuck,” and “Poker Ho.” In each case, I laid odds like $600-to-$500 for Mizrachi or $700-to-$500 for Fishman. In a last-longer bet, the first one out of the tournament pays the other player that is still alive in the tournament, so that if I were out ahead of the all of the other guys, it would cost me at least $4,000. This put some financial pressure on the pros to play well, and I also announced each bet to the room full of 180 CH campers. Thus there was a lot of pride involved as well for the pros.
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WSOP Trades $12 Million for Gold Hands
The world loves the last name Moneymaker, as in 2003 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Champion Chris Moneymaker. In 2003, Moneymaker led the WSOP pretty much wire-to-wire. Of course, the WSOP was only four days long then. This year, a gentleman with an equally appropriate name for poker, Jamie Gold — who began his career as a talent agent to the stars and is apparently the inspiration for HBO’s “Entourage” character Ari Gold — took the crown. Jamie led the WSOP wire-to-wire for a full eight days, claiming the $12 million-title last Friday morning. How did he do it? How did Gold win the 2006 WSOP and $12 million for first?
First, he played well; and second, he made some serious hands along the way. I was watching on Day 6 — with the blinds at $25,000-$50,000 — as Gold made it $400,000 to go with 8-7, and Prahlad Friedman moved all-in for $1.2 million total. Gold called, and the flop was 6-5-4! Forty minutes later, I walked by his table again and watched Gold take a pot with 10h-9s and a board of Jh-8h-7h-9h-5s. In this hand, he had flopped a straight AND turned a straight flush!
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The 11th Bracelet – So Close
Just before writing this, I played for 21 hours straight in the last World Series of Poker (WSOP) event of 2006. We began the one-day event with more than 400 players at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, and it is now — as I write this — 7:40 a.m. on Thursday. I had a fantastic chance to shock the poker world and win my 11th WSOP bracelet — which would have given me the record for the most bracelets (Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson also have 10). With the spotlight on the final day of the main event today at 2 p.m., and the $12 million first place prize, I would have loved to steal a little bit of that thunder!
Alas, I finished in third place, but still, it was record-setting performance that I’m proud of. It was my eighth time in the money at the 2006 WSOP, and that feat has only been done two other times (Marco Traniello last year, and Richard Tatalovich this year). It was my 57th all-time cash in WSOP history, which is a record. It gave me a first, a second, a third, and a sixth; for four final tables in total.
Still, at this moment, I’m feeling like I left a bracelet or two on the table. It is my time in the poker world, and I only picked up one bracelet, and finished second in the all-around points race. How often will it be my time at the WSOP?
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Not the Deja Vu I like
With more than $90 million in prize money in the main event of the 2006 World Series of Poker (WSOP); first place is a whopping $12 million! That’s some serious coin. As you read this, we now know that 10-time bracelet winners Johnny Chan, Doyle Brunson and I are out of the WSOP main event; the three of us were eliminated on Day 1. In fact, the starting field of more than 9,000 players has now been whittled down to about 1,100 or so (this article was Aug. 2). Defending champ Joe Hachim is still in there, as is Daniel Negreanu and Allan Cunningham. You can follow the action live all week at CardPlayer.com, and then I will commentate the final live for Bluff radio (on Sirius) on the night of the 10th.
After recently winning my 10th WSOP bracelet in a no-limit Hold ’em event, I fancied my chances in the main event (no-limit Hold ’em). I had some serious momentum, I had made the money in five Hold ’em tournaments, and I knew that I was at the top of my game. Unfortunately for me, things started out badly; on the fourth hand dealt to me I picked up Jh-Jd, and watched as one player made it $300 to go, and Randy Jensen — who is a bit wild at the table — made it $800 to go. I was on the ESPN-featured table, and I said, “I’m thinking of folding my hand right now, but ESPN announcer Norman Chad will probably fall out of his chair.”
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Making History with my 10th!
After fighting hard here in Las Vegas for more than a month, and making it into the money in six tournaments, with three final tables, I won my coveted bracelet number 10! The money wasn’t bad either — $630,000 for first place. But honestly, I would have paid at least that much (assuming that I had it!) to win another World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet and tie Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson for the all-time bracelet lead. Fortunately, they paid me the money along with the bracelet. Winning WSOP bracelets and other history-making poker tournaments is the reason why I play the game. In fact, my passion for the game, and my level of play, are at a new high.
After a tough second-place finish a few weeks back, I believe that many in the poker world thought that I would not be back to the final table. After all, the fields are pretty massive, and it isn’t easy to make it all the way to the final nine. But I came back to two more final tables, finally beating the other 1,600 players in the $1,000 buy-in — with rebuys — no limit Hold ’em to claim my 10th WSOP title. That tournament began on Sunday, and I told my mother and father, “I don’t think I have enough gas in the tank to win this thing. I have played until midnight or later in so many of these tournaments, under intense pressure, for 30 days now. If I win it, it will be purely by gutting it out.” My mother then pretended to be a gas pump, and somehow it inspired me — she is a spiritual woman. I do not think that I would have won this event without my father watching all day long on Day 2 and Day 3, and my mother’s inspiring presence. Thanks, folks!
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