Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 16:14:59 -0700 (PDT) From: Ken Kubey Subject: [Target] TARGET 2007 - Kubey and Kevan's mom in the WSOP Okay, TARGET is over... Head over to the Rio on my own. Super long line to sign up for the $1500 event. Sandi, Kris and I have show tickets for 10:30 p.m. at the Bellagio. I will meet them there. It is about 6:45 when I get in line. I meet a nice guy from Wisconsin named Keith. We chat about all sorts of stuff while stuck in line. Mostly poker of course. I see Bill, Andy and some other semi-famous rec.gamblers. At about 9:30, we are nearing the front of the line. It turns out that Keith has to drive to the Bellagio to meet a friend at 10:30 also. He offers to give me a ride there so I won't miss the show. Awesome. This is my lucky day. We get through the line around 9:45. Walk all the way through the Rio to get to Keith's rental car. We are headed toward the Bellagio. Light turns red. 2, 3, 4. SCREECH. Slam! We are hit from behind. Pretty hard jolt. It's a blonde woman in a brand new Mercedes convertible. She's wearing sun glasses. She drives around us the the left. Keith yells at here... "You're gonna pull over, right?" She smiles at him and keeps driving. She runs for it. We drive after her, get the plate number, call the cops. I call Sandi. She's able to get a refund on my ticket. We have to wait for the cops. Keith drops me back at the Mirage. --- Next day... WSOP... I see Keith. He looks okay, but he says he still has a headache. I'm okay. Barbara is also in the event. I see some other friends... Ed Fernandez, Jeff S., Al and others. We start with 3000 in chips. So anywhere I mention chips below, divide by 2 to get the real value of the chips, okay? I lose a pot to seat 4 with AKo rivering the #2 flush. Arrgghhh. I bet the turn. He bet just small enought to get me to call on the river. I'm in seat 9. I win a good pot with AA. Guy in seat 8 is crushing the table. He's making all the right moves. Just playing fantastic. I really think he may show up deep in the money. He raises. Seat 3 jams. 8 calls. He turns over KK. Seat 3 rolls over AA. Seat 8 is injured. He blows some more chips. It's obvious he is steaming. I'm in the SB. Folded to Seat 8. He jams. I see A9o. Plenty good. I'm actually more worried about the big blind than seat 8. I jam. The guy in the big blind actually thinks about it and folds. Seat 8 has J9. I bust him. BB tells me he folded A4o. He really wanted to play it. There was a 4 on the flop and turn. If I didn't jam, I might have gotten busted. --- New seat 8 jams. I find AQ and jam over the top. Seat 8 has 87s in hearts. Huh? Flop is 5-4-3 with 2 hearts. Yuck! He misses. I've doubled up to 6000 in chips. Move to the main room. --- Seat 10 is all-in with JJ vs. AA. Nails the J. His name was Gordon. I think he won $9000 in the event. --- Seat 4 is all-in with 99 vs. JJ. He spikes the 9. --- New seat 8. Internet Punk. He calls himself a punk. He flops a set and wins a big pot. He's been at the table for a good while. Maybe an hour. I've folded every hand except one. I stole the blinds with 74o. I did not show the hand. I thought about making a big play for a pot from the BB after 3 limpers with Q3o, but just couldn't do it. I've dwindled down to 3800. Blinds are 200-400. 50 Ante. Right before the dinner break. About 5 hours in. Folded to the punk in the small blind. He raises to 1150. I think he probably has crap and is just stealing. I look down at A5o. Plenty good. I jam. The raise is 2700 more. He thinks for a while. 10 to 15 seconds. I know he's going to call. He calls. He makes some comment like "I'll race with you." I think he's going to turn over a small pair or AJ. Nope. K8s. Flop is all small. Turn 8. I shake my head. River X. I'm out. Arrgghhhhhhhh. Seat 4 came over to me to tell me that he thought I played great. That made me feel a little better. ====================================================================== Look around for Barbara. Can't find her anywhere. I guess she's out too. Sanda and Kris come by. We celebrity watch. Get pics taken with Annie Duke who is handing out free beer. Well, if you call Milwakee's Best Light "beer." Later, I see Barbara. She has chips and is heading to her new table. 500 players left. She's still in. She has a short stack. I get a hold of her son, Kevan on the cell. He is so excited for her. He gives me one little tip for her. I pass it along. The money is 270 players. Can she make it? Barbara got moved away from the rail tables. We left at about 11:00 knowing that play would continue until 2:00 a.m. About 11:30 a.m on Sunday, I decided to call Kevan. I assumed that since I hadn't heard anything that she must have gone out. Nope. Barbara made the money!!! She went all-in with AA with 271 players left and survived. Someone at another table busted out putting her into the money. Is this a great story or what? Kevan can't play in TARGET, send his mom. Mom makes the final table of TARGET as the chip leader. Nearly loses TARGET vs. my 55 Presto! boat, but lucks out to win that hand. Perhaps Presto! is such a special hand that it knew that it had to lose so that Barbara could continue to play. Barbara makes the money in her first WSOP event. I wish I could tell you that she went on to the big money, but she finally did bust out in 220th place for a payday of $3888. 15% of that will come back to the 27 other TARGET players. Something like $15 or $20 per player. This is the first time a TARGET player has made the money playing with a TARGET entry. And it is Kevan Garrett's mom! What a story. Let's hope that Marc Ferguson can make the money too. Ken Kubey kubey@engr.sgi.com (650) 933-3536 _______________________________________________ Target mailing list Target@conjelco.com http://mail.conjelco.com/mailman/listinfo/target