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Having the WPT in my Back Yard
Not so long ago, another World Poker Tour (WPT) championship hit San Jose, right in my back yard. It was pretty nice driving just 20 minutes from my home to the Bay 101 card club to play in a WPT event. Unfortunately, I would be leaving Bay 101 on day one with a bad taste in my mouth. It’s one thing to take bad beats (get seriously unlucky) in some big pots. It’s quite another to draw hands decent enough for me to survive and thrive on day one, but instead play a terrible game of poker, self destruct and then drive home feeling like an idiot. If it had been simply bad luck, then I could have quickly forgotten about it, but for two hours straight I played no-limit Hold ’em like a donkey!
I had been blessed with some really nice cards, and about four hours into the tournament I had run my $10,000 starting stack up to more than $50,000. With that much in chips, I could have left the room, driven home, taken a nap and still made it to the end of day one with more than $30,000 in chips. Normally, with $50,000-plus it would be easy to last through the rest of the day, notwithstanding some really bad luck, which was quite unlikely. All I had to do was fold my weak and marginal hands, and wait for advantageous situations to come along.
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Dealing in the Bad Boys of Poker
Queen of clubs, 10 of clubs, Qc-10c, Qc-10c … Phil! Wake up! You’re having a nightmare. And you would too, if you lost a $230,000 pot and then a $350,000 pot to your opponent’s Qc-10c the same night! At the recent World Poker Tour (WPT) “Bad Boys of Poker” special, I finally made another WPT final table. (Of course, only six of us began the event, so technically I started at the final table.) I was there with Tony G, Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, Men “The Master” Nguyen, John Robert Bellande and defending champion Gus Hansen.
With the blinds at $3,000-$6,000, and the antes at $500 a man, I opened a pot for $18,000 in early position with Kc-Kd, and The Master called me one off of the button with Qc-10c. The flop was Q-J-9, I checked, and The Master checked. We both checked on the flop because we were slow-playing our hands.
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Big Doings at the WPT Celebrity Invitational
After playing in the Commerce Casino’s $10,000 buy-in L.A. Poker Classic on the World Poker Tour (WPT), on Feb. 19, I was all fired up to play the WPT Celebrity Invitational at the Commerce six days later. Poker has been really hot, and I have never seen that many stars in this event before. For me, it was a great pleasure to meet James Garner (of “Maverick,” “The Rockford Files,” and countless other TV shows and movies over the years). As a poker player, how could I not love Garner? (Did I mention that he starred in “Maverick?”)
I was off to a fast start when I raised it up with A-4, the flop came down 4-4-4, and someone moved all-in on me with A-J high! We started the event with $10,000 in chips, and I was immediately up to $30,000 in chips. That’s a pretty agreeable way to start. Then I ran into Mark “I Can’t Help It” Seif. Lately, Seif cannot help but win poker tournaments, including an amazing two World Series of Poker tournaments in 2005. He has no fear (as the following hand will show), and a lot of talent.
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Arrived Late, Left Early
Man, was I looking forward to playing in a World Poker Tour (WPT) event, any WPT event. I had not played in a history-making event with a huge prize pool since November, and the Commerce Casino’s $10,000 buy-in L.A. Poker Classic proved to have an especially huge prize pool, including $2.4 million for first place. After skipping five major events in January, and watching my contemporaries like Daniel Negreanu, Scotty Nguyen and Michael Mizrachi win, I was raring to go!
After all, I’m a proud guy, and seeing all of these other guys win had stirred me up a bit. Yes, I did win a $700,000 condo at the W Hotel, Casino and Residences, Las Vegas tournament held in January, but I doubt that anyone in the poker world respects that win — against a bunch of movie stars — very much. So off I went, for a 6:30 p.m. start, and I was actually on time for the first time in years. (In retrospect, I wish I’d come 70 minutes late.)
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A Happy Outcome at Camp Hellmuth
With three players left in the Camp Hellmuth finale — which played out onstage in front of 200 people, with the hands being shown on a big screen, and with me announcing the hands to the audience — Gordon Higgins, from Kansas City, was getting low on chips. But after what he’s been through this past year, it didn’t bother him at all.
You see, Higgins’ girlfriend had given him a Camp Hellmuth ticket as a present, and they planned to turn the two-day camp into a real Vegas vacation by adding two days for themselves after the camp ended.
Higgins, however, was being treated for thyroid cancer and was feeling low on energy.
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So You Want to Make a Deal?
With about six players left in the $5,000 buy-in “Big One” at Harrah’s “Carnavale of Poker” in 2000, 1999 Player of the Year Hieu “Tony” Ma whispered to me, “Phil, how sweet is it that this Frenchman keeps betting all of his chips pre-flop? You’re going to bust him for sure!” At the time, I agreed with Ma. I thought the Frenchman’s chips were mine to win. I love playing against a “slider” (someone who moves all of his chips into the middle regardless of how high the blinds have risen because once he slides it all-in, he can’t fold when you — eventually — pick up a big pair behind him. So when the tournament came down to Farzad “Freddy” Bonyadi, Angelo ”the Frenchman” Besnainou and me, they asked me to make a deal, I told the Frenchman, “No deal.”
So much for Tony Ma’s view of things! And my own! The Frenchman ended up busting me and winning the tournament! I ended up finishing in third for $100,000 (first was $400,000 and second was $200,000), whereas I would have taken home more than $250,000 had I made the deal. Did I make the right decision? What I really wanted was the title, and I knew I would stay focused if I played for all the money. What’s more, some players give away more information under the unrelenting pressure one feels when playing for so much money, and that tends to strengthen my already strong reads on short-handed opponents. Many players, in fact, tend to melt and make serious mistakes when they’re under so much pressure. So I believe, even in hindsight, that playing for it all was the right move for me in this situation.
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