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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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Playing for the 10th in the World Series
Once again, I made a final table at the 2006 World Series of Poker (WSOP). This time, the game was Omaha 8/b (a high/low split game). With a chance to win my historic 10th bracelet and tie Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan with 10 apiece for the WSOP all-time lead, I fell short once again. Although I was able to beat 360 players, there were five that I could not outlast. I did manage to set the record for most finishes in the money in WSOP history at 53, but this wasn’t the record that I wanted.
One game was a $2,500 buy-in pot limit Hold ’em tournament, I sat down and actually knew more than one player at my starting table; which is unusual with 1,000 player plus fields almost everyday. In fact, Howard “The Professor” Lederer was on my right, and Mike Sexton (the commentator for the World Poker Tour) was on my left. Naturally, I arrived more than two hours late, and my starting stack of $2,500 in chips had dwindled down to $1,775. Although I woke up in a timely manner, I felt tired and simply didn’t feel like playing poker right then. So I went for a long workout, sauna, coffee and lunch. I arrived in the tournament area feeling strong.
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Close, so close, at the 2006 WSOP
Imagine that there are maybe a thousand fans watching the two of us playing heads-up poker, even though there are only about 300 seats in the whole arena. Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, movie star Shannon Elizabeth, and many other poker greats and notables are in attendance. ESPN is there filming, and the worldwide poker press is reporting on the spectacle. The scene is electric.
That was where I sat as I went for my would-be historic, record-tying 10th win at the World Series of Poker (WSOP). My wife had flown in for the final table, and my family, my friends and poker fans all over the world were watching the CardPlayer.com coverage on the Internet.
Too bad I failed. Again. With 608 people to beat, I had beaten 607. The event was the $5,000 buy-in no-limit Hold ’em tournament, and first place was over $820,000. I did manage to win $423,000 for second place, and I did set the all-time WSOP record for most times (52) finishing in the money. (The money is great, and the record is great, but I sure would have liked to grab that bracelet!) As for winning my 10th bracelet and tying the all-time WSOP win record with Chan and Brunson, I was so close.
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In New Orleans, Robin in Batman
Here was the lineup for the fifth “Celebrity Poker Showdown,” shown on Bravo on June 28: Macy Gray (Grammy Award-winning singer), Joy Behar (“The View”), Christopher Meloni, Andy Dick (“bad boy” and actor), and Robin Tunney (“Prison Break”). We shot the whole series in New Orleans, and one thing is certain, the partying in the French Quarter, although not as gigantic a scale as in the past, continues around the clock! The French Quarter, fortunately, was not engulfed during Hurricane Katrina, which means that many historic landmarks were left standing and in good shape. But throughout much of the rest of the city the Katrina damage has not been cleaned up, and there are many thousands of now worthless homes and cars that are just sort of left there to linger.
Dave Foley and I were happy to be co-hosting “Poker,” especially in light of the fact that so much of the show focuses on New Orleans, and the $1 million prize pool goes directly to New Orleans-based charities. What’s more, all of the charities’ phone numbers were given onscreen throughout the series, and one can hope that that will raise several million dollars more. As for our fifth show, Foley picked Andy Dick to win (out of loyalty, since they were co-stars on the hit TV show “News Radio”), and I picked Robin Tunney to win, but the celebrities all thought Macy Gray was the favorite. As the show progressed, I could see that Gray was the best Hold ’em player in this heat.
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