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Never Give Up! Part One
While playing in the Bellagio’s Five-Star World Poker Classic’s $1,000 buy-in Pot Limit Hold’em tournament, the following series of events unfolded; including part-two of this article, in which I make one of the stupidest moves I have ever made in a poker game! This article shows that you can never give up in a poker tournament.
Two off of the button, with the blinds at $100-$200, I opened the pot for $600 of my remaining $900, with K-9. Max Stearn, holding 10-10, just called in the small blind, because he was afraid to re-raise and possibly run into a big hand in the big blind. I don’t blame Max for just calling at this point in the hand; after all it looks like he’s going to get my last $300 in any case.
With a flop of A-10-8, Max checked, and then I checked. By the way, if he bet my last $300 here on the flop, then I would have called fairly quickly because of the pot odds-after all he may have a small pair here as well. The fourth card made Max four tens, and he checked. At this point, I’m folding my hand for a $300 bet. Also, I’m folding no matter what hits on the last card-although a K would have tempted me to call. The last card was a 3, and now Max bet my last $300, and I folded quickly.
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Pot Limit Omaha – What a Game!
OK y’all, the following hand occurred in a $5-$10 blind pot limit Omaha game in Kinder, La. Jeff Sparks out of Houston wrote this hand up, and sent it to me. It reminds me of a very famous statement that I have heard many times…it seems to be right at the tip of my tongue. Oh well, let’s get to the hand right now:
Small blind (SB): holds 5c-7c-8s-9s ($800)
Big blind (BB): holds 3d-5s-7s-8d ($1,000)
Position 1: Under the gun holds Ac-Ad-4c-4d ($600)
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Seidel vs. Hennigan
The Taj Mahal in Atlantic City sure knows how to run a poker tournament. The staff there is friendly and accommodating-“Miami” John Cernuto asked them (on behalf of the players) to change their structures and they did. While speaking about “Miami” John, let me say congratulations to him for winning the $4,000 buy-in Seven-card Stud Championship at the Taj Mahal’s United States Poker Championship (USPC)-and the $156,000 first prize. John is one of the best tournament Stud players in the world today. John-you deserved it!
Three days after the Stud Championship ended, the $7,500 no limit Hold’em Championship began. For three days the players slugged it out for the right to make the final six players, be on the Travel Channel, and win the $212,000 first prize. Personally, I was quite sad to be eliminated on the first day.
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Never Give Up – Part Two
In a previous Hand of the Week, we talked about the Bellagio’s Five-Star World Poker Classic’s $1,000 buy-in Pot Limit Hold’em tournament, and how I ran $300 under the gun, up to $10,000 in one round, when the blinds were $100-$200. What a nice round of poker for me! I then told you that I eventually made the final table with the chip lead–with over $60,000 in chips–along with Howard Lederer (who was a short stack), Daniel Negreanu, Jeff Schulman (short stack), Dennis Waterman (he finished number one in Card Player magazine pot limit Hold’em category in 2002) and unknown Brian Green.
Jeff, Daniel, and Howard finished 8th, 7th, and 6th. Howard later told me, “I was very surprised that this random group played so well. Usually, when I don’t know the players at a table they make a lot of mistakes.” Howard is right about this, the players were playing some great poker at the final table that day.
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Where is the ‘Big Game?’
The following games exist just as I described them below–in the Bay Area…
I was dealt 2-2-2-9d-6d, and the wild card turned up was a 2! I now had one of the best-possible hands that could be dealt! I could play the 6d, 9d, and then make my three wild cards complete my ten-high straight flush. The chips literally began to fly into the pot, raising and re-raising as we drew cards and turned up a “fitter” (common card). These amateurs are as bad at poker as they are rich, I thought. As the pot grew in size, I had to pinch myself for two reasons: first, this hand, but second, because of the opulence of this house. I had to admire this guy; he had an exercise room for him and his wife bigger than any I had ever seen in any hotel (I’m not kidding). Four brand-new gleaming stair masters, four beautiful treadmills, weight machines, steam room, hot tub, etc…
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Phil’s Short-handed Calls vs. Scotty
On the recent Card Player Cruise through the Caribbean on the Holland Cruise ship “Zandam,” I played in a $1,000 buy-in no limit Hold’em event with 42 of my shipmates. Coming off of an all-night session of Chinese poker (deuce to seven in the middle) vs. Andy Bloch, I decided that I had more equity in the 10:00 AM tournament, than I did playing Andy, even though I’d been up all-night. I was frustrated with losing over 70 points for the night (over $7,000!) and ready, honestly, for bed. Did I really come onboard to play Bloch Chinese poker” He is the one player in the world I know to be better than me at the game!
So the tournament began, and with no apparent excuse to be “Phil Hellmuth late,” I invented a good one. I went downstairs to shower, clean up, put on my walkman and hat, and change into fresh clothes. My expectations were low, but I was going to try my hardest to win this thing.
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