-
Bad Beat for Layne Flack
A few months back, in Las Vegas, at the Red Rock Casino’s $20,000 buy-in tournament, Layne “Back-to-back” Flack faced a tough six-handed starting table, including: Phil Ivey, Allen Cunningham, Richard Brodie, Jeff Shulman and Robert Mizrachi. There were six tables with six players at each table, and winning your table simply meant that you would get your money back. The final six players would then play for $600,000 for first place, live on FSN (Fox Sports Net) on Thanksgiving Day — the first show is on October 7th.
Flack is one of the toughest — and most feared — no-limit Hold ’em tournament players in the world, and he has been since he left Montana and showed up in Las Vegas back in 1998. In 1998, on his very first trip to a major tournament, Flack made an immediate impact by winning one of the first big-time poker tournaments that he ever played in. A few years later, he picked up his “back-to-back” nickname at the Bicycle Club (in Los Angeles) when he won two tournaments in two days. The reason why Flack is feared at the table is that he is capable of betting all of his chips on a pure bluff when he smells any weakness at all in his opponent. When Flack is reading the other players well, then you might as well stop trying to bluff him altogether, because if you do, he will be ready for you.
-
Michael Jordan: Champion
Recently, in Minneapolis, longtime New York Knick player Trent Tucker (he played for them for 10 years), had a charity event to benefit the “Trent Tucker Youth Program.” Normally, this event is all about the golf, and people pay a minimum of $5,000 per person to play with the likes of Michael Jordan, Kevin Garnett, Patrick Ewing, Byron Scott, Charles Oakley, Scottie Pippen and many other NBA stars and celebrities. The 2006 version included a no-limit Hold ’em charity poker tournament at Canterbury Card Casino; and Johnny Chan, Michael “the Grinder” Mizrachi, Greg Raymer, Phil Gordon, Liz Liu, John Phan, Patrick Antonious, Marcel Luske and myself were there to support the charity.
Since my brother David and my agent Brian Balsbaugh were both long time residents of the twin cities, I was pleased to have had an inside report that said that Trent Tucker is first class in every sense of the word.
About 120 players entered the poker tournament, including the No. 1 celebrity in the world, Michael Jordan, but not including Ewing or Scott (Scott told me that he doesn’t play, but that his 19-year-old daughter loves Hold ’em). I busted out when I limped in with Q-10, two others limped in behind me, and the flop came down Qc-10c-9d. I bet the flop and was called by one player, and then Phan moved me all-in. I “insta-called” his bet and Phan rolled over the 8c-2c. He needed a club for a flush or a jack for a straight. The first card off was the Jc, and the next card off just plain added insult to injury; it was the 9c and made Phan a straight flush! Phan came all the way to Minneapolis to bust me, but I still bought Dom and Cristal for him at the club (“Karma”) later that night.
-
Day 2 at the Bicycle Club
In my last column, I covered Day 1 of the World Poker Tour (WPT) tournament at the Bicycle Club in Los Angeles. I mentioned that I had made a mistake against Erik Seidel by playing a 5-3 hand for a raise before the flop, and how that hand ended up costing me more than $20,000 in chips. Still, I did make it to Day 2 (on Monday) with $24,500 in chips. (We had started with $20,000 apiece.)
On Day 2, I sat down in the two seat, with J-Till (actress Jennifer Tilly) to my left in the three seat, Michael “the Grinder” Mizrachi in the four seat, World Champion of poker Scotty Nyugen in the seven seat, and tough player James Van Alstyne to my right in the one seat. Tough table, and it seemed like they were ALL pretty tough, owing to the fact that we’d had only 450 players enter the tournament, as opposed to over 1,000 entrants for most of the World Series of Poker tournaments held over the last two months.
With the blinds at $300-$600 I soon realized I was at a table that liked to play big pots. One pot J-Till opened for $1,800 in late position, Player A on the button made it $5,000 to go with K-J, Player B in the big blind made it $20,000 to go with As-7s, J-Till moved all-in for $63,000 total, Player A called for his last $14,000, and Player B called $43,000 more. J-Till then flipped up A-A — tough to beat, but the rest of us were in shock to see K-J and As-7s from the other hands! Player A had called off his last $14,000 with K-J off suit, excuse me? I don’t blame him for reraising it $5,000 to go, though that was a bit weak, but how in the world could he call off his last $14,000 with K-J? He should have known, given the third and fourth raises before the flop, that he was looking at A-A or K-K in his opponents’ hands, so throwing away his K-J should have been an easy decision.
-
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).
-
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.
-
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!
™
