Subject: Perry's Big Adventure (Part II)
Date: 17 Apr 2001 23:05:49 GMT
From: friedman@Xenon.Stanford.EDU (Perry Friedman)
Organization: Stanford University, CA 94305, USA
Newsgroups: rec.gambling.poker

  I returned to Vegas to play in the $5,00 stud event, play some satellites,
and then play the main event.

Satellites

  One night there was a single table stud satellite, and I had Andy Bloch buy
me in.  I told him if he bought me in 100%, I would take 10% of the winnings.
I just wanted to play, but I didn't want to use my own money.  So a freeroll
was pretty cool.  I was pretty friendly with some of the players who
were in and Men "the Master" Nguyen, who I had met during the $2,500 stud
event, was also playing.  Myself and the other player had a blast making
every bad joke about Men that you could imagine.  I told him I had been to
his place.  Or that I thought I had.  Because there was a sign out front
that said "Men's Room."  Another player commented that he (men)was
"playing with boys" (of course, WE were playing with Men).  The funniest
line, which almost caused me to spit my water all over the table,
was when someone said "Men is from Mars."
  Well, I got down to almost no chips left, but then I made a huge
recovery.  The satellite only paid one spot, and I ended up heads up
with Men.  He had a chip lead, and I tried to cut a deal.  It was later and I
was getting tired and I was going to play the next day.  And besides,
besides, I was on a freeroll, so any money was better than none.
Men did not want to bargain.  I offered him $4,000 to my $1,000.  This was
an insanely good deal for him.  Our chips were not that uneven,
although he had a decent lead.  After I won another pot, he called his backer
and we struck the deal.  Now, when I came back to Andy with his money, he
was happy at first until I told him about the deal.  Well, he made money
for nothing, and besides, if I was dumb enough to make such a bad deal,
imagine how badly I would have played if I kept playing!  But, in hindsight,
I think this was a bad idea.  At the very least, since I was on a freeroll,
it was worth the money (I only got like $40 since I only got 10% of the
PROFIT), just for the experience of playing heads up with Men.  I had
made a nice comeback, and I was not afraid of him, since I had gotten
the best of him earlier int he $2,500 event.

  Another satellite I played in was a one table no limit satellite with,
among others, John Bonetti.  We got down to three players and one player,
a female, wanted to cut a deal.  We were all about even, but John had a
small lead, so I said we'd have to give him something extra to make it fair.
But he did not want to deal.  We played around some more and ended up about
where we started, and she asked for a deal again.  When John refused the
deal this time, she jammed the next hand.  I held a small pair, and I figured
she was just on tilt, so I called.  I ended up winning the hand and crippling
her.  At this point, she was very short-stacked and on tilt.  She was to
my right and John's left.  And the next two times she had the big blind,
John put her all in with a raise from the small blind and both times,
as soon as she called, he said "nice call" and she won both pots.  I had
no idea what John was thinking.  She was very short stacked on tilt and
he tried to bluff her out with pure crap twice and was shocked when she
called.  There was no way she was going to fold, especially the first time
when she was really short.  This was just sheer madness, I thought.
He doubled her up twice and eventually John busted out third.  I had
exactly twice her stack at that point and we ended up cutting a deal,
although she kept trying to finagle a better deal.  In fact, when I knew
I had exactly twice her stack, because I knew how many chips were in play,
but she insisted we count down both stacks.

Phil Satellite Stories

  When I got back for my second stay, Phil Gordon, a fellow Tiltboy had
arrived for some action.  He had some very interesting satellite experiences
that I witnessed.  The first was a classic!  Phil won a pot in an
Omaha Hi-Lo game and busted from the satellite!  Phil had gotten into a side
pot that had three chips in it, and Phil ended up chopping the low with
another player.  Well, the other player was closer to the button, so he
got 2 chips for high, and then 1 for low.  Needless to say, Phil was quite
unhappy!  Phil calls for the floorman, but clearly this was the right
decision.  Now, those of you who know Phil, you know he is quite
susceptible to going on tilt.  And tilt he did.

  Phil enters another Omaha tournament and this time he is running over
the table.  He has a huge stack and ends up getting in a hand with
none other than TJ Cloutier.  Well, Phil has the nut full-house on the
flop and TJ calls.  They turn over the hand, and it turns out TJ's only
out was runner quads.  And what happens?  Runner runner quads!  Phil
goes ballistic!  Now, Phil still was second stack, and had plenty of chips,
so I call him aside and try to calm him down.  I knew that if I didn't,
Phil would spew through the rest of his chips in no time flat.  I told
Phil he still had second stack and was only one or two hands from winning
the thing and to calm down.  Well, Phil was still steaming a bit, but
he did calm down and ended up winning the satellite.  Even though
I take great pleasure in tilting Phil (as the next story, and innumerable
untold stories could show), this was one occasion where I decided to
help get Phil OFF tilt and it ended up quite profitable for him.

  Another Phil satellite story involves him, I, and Andy Bloch.  We all
decided to enter a lowball satellite and make a last longer bet.  Well,
I had played lowball once before in my life, but I decided to give it a try.
I did OK, but I was the first of the three of us out.  Phil ended up making it
all the way to third out of ten players, but Andy finished second!  Needless
to say, Phil was once again on tilt.  And this time, I couldn't resist but
to add insult to injury.  I need to interject here that Phil is EXTREMELY
competitive.  And he also has been playing tournaments for a while, in
his semi-retirement.  He was really tilted that I had gotten a WSOP jacket
before he did.  He actually made it into the money in a couple of WSOP
events, but I ended up with a jacket on only my second event in WSOP 2000,
and only my 4th WSOP event ever.  So, I walk up to Phil, who is still
smarting from finishing third and not even winning his last longer bet and
say "Hey, now we BOTH have finished third in an event at the World Series!"

  I also played some Omaha satellites.  I played in one, and ended up
busting Phil from it!  He was on MEGA tilt and started yelling at me
for playing such a hand, and so on.  He later came back and apologized
but also pointed out some other player at the table and told me he
was really good and if I could cut any sort of deal with him, I should!
Well, sure enough, I end up getting heads up with that very same player.
I had the chip lead and talks of a deal came up.  Given what Phil had said,
I felt good about myself.  He offered me more than half the money and
then Phil comes over and says "don't take it!!"  The man who said take
any deal was now telling me not to.  Of course, I ended up taking the deal.
Just imagine how tilted I would have been if I hadn't and I busted and
got nothing, all because of Phil!

Super Satellite Silliness

  Well, I could tell my share of bad beat stories, but why bother.  The only
bad beat that would have been worth mentioning would be if I had won the
$10K main event.  And the bad beat would have been for the dealers.  Because
I would have stiffed them.  All because of one douchebag super satellite
dealer.  I was in a super, and we just had gone to break when my
cellphone rings.  It was my parents calling.  I answer the phone and
the dealer tells me that I need to get up from the table if I am going
to talk on the phone!  I told him we were on break!  There was NO ACTION
going on.  But he rudely insisted I had to stand up.  I was quite pissed!
Not only was this just STUPID - we were on BREAK - but the dealer was also
rude.   I vowed if I wont he main event, I would refuse to tip and I would
let everyone know it was this dealer's fault!

7-Stud, Part Deux

  The $5,000 stud event was pretty uneventful.  I was actually doing very well,
until one hand that was a make/break hand for the tourney.  I started aces
and finished aces, and lost to Larry Flynt, who was holding 2's and 4's
in a three way pot.  Was betting this hand from the beginning and got two
callers to the end.  I have no idea what the third player could have been
holding.  One of my aces was showing, so it was pretty clear what I was
representing (which was, in fact, what I had).  After that hand, I was back
to even for the tournament, but I dwindled from there.  Had I won that pot, I'd
have had more than double my buyin.

  I did resist poking fun of Larry.  I told Phil "Tiltboy" Gordon that I
was going to tell Larry my nickname was "the Peeper" and that it was
"the Peeper" vs. Larry Flynt.  But it's hard to needle a man in a wheelchair,
especially when he has his own bodyguards!

  Larry managed to parlay that hand into making the final table.  He got
there with a short stack, but he did make it.  Someone commented that
he "limped" into the final table.  I think he actually "rolled" into the final
table, but he just did so short-stacked.

Main event

  The main event started on May 15, my birthday.  I had said beforehand
that my goal was to at least make it through my birthday.  I was pretty
nervous entering the main event, and before it started Phil Gordon came
over and said to just play conservatively and wait for a pocket pair and
hope to flop a set.  I took his advice, and played way too tight.  I mean,
I've played no limit tournaments before, but for some reason, my brain
just didn't work well and I was just too nervous.  I played way too
tight and conservative.  Of course, I also had a rather tough table.
Lyle Berman and Berry Johnsonwere at my table from the start.  Lyle played
pretty well, until dinner, and then spewed away his chips.  Someone commented
that he must have had some win with dinner becuase he never plays like that.
Interestingly, the only time I flopped a set with a pocket pair was against
Lyle, and even though I flopped top set, I had to fold before the river.  The
board flopped all hearts and so I had to be careful, and by the end, another
heart had come and a straight flush was possible.  I mucked and Lyle did in
fact have the straight flush.  I also had Chris Tsiprailidis as my table.  He
had just $3000 limit Holdem event early in the WSOP.  And then, a few hours in,
Amarillo Slim came over to my table, with Gerlado Rivera and a camera crew
in tow.  Slim made some funny plays and stole a lot.  In retrospect,
considering I was playing badly anyhow, I should have made a move on him
one of those times.  Of course, by the time I noticed he was stealing around
back EVERY time, it was too late to do anything about it because our table
broke.  Just once I would have liked to have made a move, while the camera
crew was there.  Either I could win the pot and show down a bluff and try
to tilt Slim and get on TV, or I just lose to a "pro" and it's no big deal.
  Anyhow, after it became clear that the first "day" would actually
last past midnight, I told Phil and a few other people that with my luck,
I'd make it past midnight but not through the first "day."  Sure enough,
as my stack dwindled and midnight approached, I was waiting and praying
I could make it to the break right around midnight.  I survived, but when
we resumed I was in desperate shape.  Eventually, I moved all in against
Mike Sexton with presto (pocket fives) and lost to his Ax (I think AQ).
  All in all, I think I played poorly.  I guess it was just the nerves of
playing in "the Big Dance" that got to me.  It was much like the first
tournaments I ever played in at the WSOP, in 1999.  Even though I'd now
played in a few more, and done well, I was still nervous for this one.
Hopefully, I've got that out of my system now.

Mirage No limit

  I decide to enter a no-limit tourney at the Mirage, to try and get
off tilt from the events of the day before.  It was $60 buyin with unlimited
rebuys for the first few rounds.  My table was playing very loose, with
players making liberal rebuys.  I decided to encourage this and figured
I would be willing to take multiple rebuys.  Heck, at $40 a pop, it's cheap
compared to what I lost at the WSOP :-)  And I wanted to encourage everyone
else to play loose too.  I wanted lots of chips available at my table
so I could win a lot of things worked out.  My strategy was pretty much
fold or jam.  Push my big hands hard, knowing everyone was playing loose
and if I hit, I'd get paid off big time.  I ended up doing about 7 or 8
rebuys, before finally flopping a set with one of my pocket pairs.  After
that big pot, I tightened up.  I eventually flopped another set with a pocket
pair and got paid off again, and I left that table with a huge stack.
  When we got down to two tables, they did not start off playing hand
for hand.  They waited until it was one player away from the final table,
even though we were in the money now.  At one point, someone at the other
table took several minutes to play his hand.  My table kept looking over
to their table, but we kept on playing.  Finally, we called the floor
over to ask him to put a clock on the other player, which he did.  After
they finished the hand, the stalling player, who won the pot, said to his
tablemates he had been stalling for their own good.  This ticked me off.
It was one thing for him to stall, but to out and out admit he was
doing it on purpose ticked me off.  The next hand, their was an all-in
from an early position player.  When the action got to me, I sat there and
thought, and thought, and stalled, and stalled... but as I was doing this,
I mouthed to the all-in player that I was folding.  I wanted to stall,
but I didn't want the all-in player to sweat over it.  After a long stall,
I finally folded the hand, as did the rest of the table.  This is the silliness
of not going hand for hand when there are two tables and you are already
in the money, working up the prize list (or if you are one out of the
money).  I ended up making the final table, and finishing 7th, making enough
money to more than cover buyin and my rebuys :-)

My First Royal

  Still on tilt about how I played in the main event, I decide to enter
a tourney at the Orleans as well.  I have done well at the Orleans,
having made the final table in every tourney (about 4 so far) I had played
in so far, although I have never won one.  This is a limit holdem tournament,
with rebuys and bounties ($5 for knocking someone out).
I am dealt QsJs in the big blind and the flop comes KT9, with the Ks.
I end up going 4 bets with another guy and a third player calls all the way.
So far, so good.  Then the turn comes.  It's a Ts, pairing the board.  BUT,
now I have picked up an open-ended straight flush redraw, if someone
happened to have filled up.  I suspect the person who was reraising me
did NOT have QJ, but if they did, I am freerolling now with a big draw.
If they flopped trips or two pair, I still have outs, although they are slim.
I bet, he raises all in, caller calls, I reraise to build a side pot.
River comes the beautiful ace of spades!  I bet and the third player finally
folds.  What could they have been holding?  Before the all-in player shows his
hand, I stand up and announce "FULL HOUSE NO GOOD!" and show my royal!
He goes on tilt and rebuys, showing his K-T.  Of course, he really shouldn't
be on tilt, since he was nuts to cap it up on the flop with two pair
with a possible straight out.  And who knows what the third player was thinking
or playing.  If anyone should have been on tilt it was me, since it was
only the first limit of betting, so even after winning that pot, I barely
had more than someone who had just taken a rebuy to add to their initial
buyin.  If I had that hand later in the tourney, I'd have been set.  Not
to mention that since he could rebuy, I didn't even get a $5 bustout bonus.
Luckily, I did manage make another final table, but was the first one
out from the final table after my pocket twos ended up as nut low when
the board two paired :-)