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Hot Streak Freezes With a Cooler
Last time, I talked about the Tournament of Champions (TOC) and mentioned that the chip leaders after both Day 1 and Day 2 were me, Mike “the Mouth” Matusow, and Hoyt “Cowboy” Corkins, in that order. By the way, having the same three players leading for two days is a rare and remarkable occurrence. I also mentioned that poker legends Johnny Chan (finished 12th) and Doyle Brunson (finished 10th) were both eliminated just shy of the final table. With a first place prize of $1 million and $1 million to be split amongst the other final table members, first place would be sweet! Especially for me, seeing that I finished second in the 2004 TOC to Annie Duke.
For the first 70 minutes of the final table, I played just two hands, winning one of them. Patience was key for me, for this was not a table I could easily run over (these guys wouldn’t let me raise a lot of pots just to steal the antes and blinds). After all, I had Corkins on my left, along with European star Tony Bloom and a good young Internet player named Brandon Adams at the table as well. Still, my stack had shrunk only from $281,000 to $270,000 or so.
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Chan Goes Down in the TOC
Last week, I talked about Harrah’s Tournament of Champions (TOC), and the fact that poker legend Doyle Brunson finished in 10th place. With 110 players, a $1 million dollar first-place prize, $1 million more for the rest of the final table, a Christmas Eve show on ESPN, and poker history hanging in the balance, winning this one was going to be a nice feather in someone’s cap. Especially for me, in light of the fact that I had finished second, quite famously — for the Poker Brat tirade I threw afterwards — to Annie Duke in the 2004 TOC.
Before I get into it, let’s back up a bit to the final 16 players, when Johnny Chan, Brunson and I were still alive in the TOC 2005 event. (For anyone who follows poker, you know that Chan and Brunson both won their 10th World Series of Poker bracelets in 2005 on ESPN, while I remained at nine.) In any case, a key hand for me occurred with two tables remaining, against none other than Chan himself.
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Tournament of Champions
This week I played in the Tournament of Champions (TOC), along with 110 other players. Legends Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson, along with myself, were all invited to the event as some of the biggest World Series of Poker (WSOP) tournament winners. The fact that we were invited stirred a bit of controversy within the poker world, which seemed to be split down the middle — with one side saying, “These guys didn’t qualify, or try to qualify, thus they shouldn’t be playing.”
On the other side, Harrah’s put up the whole $2 million prize pool, and they felt like they should be able to have a few spots available for exemptions. Also, with Chan and Brunson having a record 10 victories apiece at the WSOP — I am alone in second with nine — Harrah’s felt like we were “Champions,” and this was, after all, the TOC.
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Nice Guy Flushes Hellmuth’s Victory
I’m sick of watching everyone else win game after game on ESPN, FSN and the Travel Channel! Am I jealous of them? No, most of the guys deserve to win their events. All-time poker greats Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan, for example, each won their 10th bracelet at the 2005 World Series of Poker (WSOP), shown on ESPN. Of course, I’m not crazy about the fact that Chan, Brunson and I were once all tied on No. 9 and vying to be first to cross the double-digit mark!
No, I’m just irked that I haven’t won a tournament in a while. Yes, I did win the NBC Heads-Up Championships this year, but a big win at WSOP, the World Poker Tour (WPT), the upcoming the Superstars of Poker III (shooting in early November) or another big televised event in Europe (two are being shot in Monte Carlo in late November) wouldn’t hurt. A man has his reputation to think of (and not because he’s a poker brat)!
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No-Limit at Roddick’s House
Here’s what my Friday was like: I started in Vegas having breakfast with Corey and Lisa Pavin at the PGA Tour event. Then it was on to Austin, Texas, on Carl and Jimmy Lou Westcott’s beautiful private jet so we could boat around Lake Austin with tennis star Andy Roddick. After those chores, it was back to business and on to an event in Austin where I took the stage, drinking Dom Perignon. The day ended with a no-limit Hold ’em tournament back at Roddick’s house.
Roddick has worked hard on his no-limit Texas Hold ’em game, and it showed. He knew how to play the game; including running over the table when he had the chip lead (aggressively bluffing when he had big chips); betting the right amount when he wanted a call; and moving in when he was a short stack.
Topping off our six-player one-table tournament were “Douggy” (Doug Spreen, Roddick’s trainer), my friends Jimmy Lou and Carl, and another friend of Roddick’s, Neal.
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Leaving 14 Dimes in the Sand
After being eliminated from the World Poker Tour event in Aruba, I was contractually committed to stay another five days. Normally, the minute I’m eliminated from a tournament, I’m looking to hop aboard the first flight home. But this was Aruba, and my wife was with me, so I was more than happy to hang out. Meanwhile, I decided to play some poker in the side games for a few hours a day, both at the Holiday Inn and at the Radisson.
Late one night, at about 3 a.m. when my high-limit, lowball game broke up, I hopped into a no-limit Hold ’em side game with $25-$50 blinds. I bought in for $4,000, and the very first hand I was dealt was Kd-Qd, followed by a flop of Qh-Qc-4d. So, of course, I doubled up when someone with Q-J moved all-in. Within 45 minutes I had 23 dimes (a “dime” is a thousand dollars) in front of me, and I was on a rush (which means simply that you’re winning a ton of pots).
In first position in a subsequent hand, I made it $100 to go without looking at my cards — this is called a “straddle” — which gave me the right to raise it up if anyone else called the $100 bet. Everyone folded to player SA (for super-aggressive!) in the big blind, and he raised it up, making it $500 to go. I looked down at 7d-5c, and decided to call the bet with this incredibly weak hand, for four reasons.
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