From: "DM" Newsgroups: rec.gambling.poker Subject: World Series of Poker 2001 - Trip Report #1 Date: Sat, 19 May 2001 14:27:57 GMT I flew in early Wednesday thinking that I would play in the Thursday $3000 No-Limit event to get some experience under my belt; that was a good decision. I have never played a MAJOR tournament event before and while I had done all the "homework," many know how much that can amount to at the table! I may be able to recite every poker book ever written, but no one's betting on me at the sportsbook! =) I played a couple of $5000 satellites on Wednesday without much success. I finished fourth in the first and third in the second after I got all in with AQ in the SB versus the button with 55. He flopped quads. I got a one chip save ($500) out of the second satellite, so at least I hadn't lost anything except the entry fee. I had really hoped to win a seat for this tournament, but was so caught up in the excitement of it all, that I just paid the darned entry fee and was off to the races. I drew seat eight and had TJ Cloutier sitting in seat ten to my left. I'm sure he didn't remember me (we had played once before in a 30-60 game when Crystal Park was still running tournaments,) but he was the same pleasant (if intimidating) guy. In seat 2 was Jack Keller and seat 3 belonged to Mark Weitzman. Seat 1 was another name player, but I didn't catch which one. The last three TJ pointed out for me as I didn't know who they were (ah, the inexperience of youth.) Jack Keller kept saying how awful our table was! If he doesn't like the table, what should anyone else think!? Seat 9 was promptly moved to another table and I got to share in most of TJs hands for the first couple of hours until our table broke. Not many chips moved around. TJ showed me a couple folds to a re-raise: AK against Jack Keller and a pair of sixes against someone else. I tried to steal TJ's blind once with QJ and he re-raised me and showed me AQ after I had folded. My second table was as much fun as my first and just as difficult! I took the 5 seat; my table was as follows: Seat 1 - Tom McEvoy, Seat 2 - Jim McManus, Seat 3 - David Sklansky, Seat 4 - Jason Viriyuthakorn (sorry if I didn't spell that right!) Seat 6 - Bobby Hoff, Seat 7 - Jennifer Harmon, and I didn't know the players in seats eight and nine. (The only one I knew right away was Tom McEvoy, I was later clued into the identities of the other players--it was so much more fun after I knew who they were!) David Sklansky busted out as I reached the table and a discussion was going on about how to pronounce Jason's last name--I believe that by the table broke that I was the only one who could do it consistently. We teased him about being a keno professional =). I arrived at the table with around the same amount of chips that I had started with, T3000. I immediately got into trouble when I limped in with 88 in early/middle position. The limits were 50-100 and there were two limpers behind me. Jim McManus made a normal raise to T400 on the button; I read him for making a play at the dead money and re-raised it to T1200. The limpers all passed, but Jim McManus went all in for about T1800. With just T600 left to call, it became a mandatory call. And, of course, he showed me AA. Danger! Danger! Not only did Jim show me Aces, he proceeded to flop a set of them! Ack!! Overload! Overload! After the river Jim let a huge breath out like he had just escaped the hangman's noose! What I had failed to notice was that I had turned a flush draw! I was still so dazed about going up against aces that I didn't even realize that I almost cracked them! (I also thought it funny that everytime that I ran up against aces the whole week in Vegas, they flopped a set.) I thought life was over at that point becoming so short-stacked! You don't know how deep the pit in your stomach can feel until you're playing at the World Series!! =) Tom McEvoy, short-stacked, left our table shortly thereafter when his pocket pair didn't hold up and our new seat three busted out shortly thereafter, as well. I managed to stay on top of my game and double through Bobby Hoff a short while later. Everyone folded to me in the small blind; I just called the bet. Bobby Hoff quickly raised me all-in (he had me quite covered) and I almost beat him into the pot with KK. He turned over A5s and I took down the pot when the flop helped neither of us. Bobby Hoff played a big a pot with Jennifer Harmon a short while later. There was a raise and a call to Bobby and he made it about four times the raise (T1600 or so) with AK. Jennifer pushed all-in (about T2200) from the blind with QQ and Bobby called. Jennifer's hand stood up and Bobby's stack was steadily depleting itself. Jason V. was chip leader with over T10000 when I sat down and maintained good control of the table--getting good cards and playing well against his opponents. Jason had the misfortune of doubling me up as well, though, when he ran into my KK. Jason thought a long time before calling my all-in pre-flop bet and when the A fell on the river, I was about ready to leave! However, Jason never showed his hand and I was still in the tournament! Jennifer was the next casualty at the table. My attention had wandered pre-flop, but the next thing that I knew, Jim McManus, having Jennifer covered, had pushed all-in from one of the blinds on the flop of K-K-x. Jennifer thought for a very long time and finally made the call. The river fell with a Jack and Jim McManus turned over JJ for Jacks full of Kings. Jennifer had her hands outstretched, cards in hand, and started shaking--KQ fell face-up on the table. Jim made an excellent bet, Jennifer made an ever better call, and the rest is history. Jim McManus told us, after Jennifer left, how badly he felt about the hand because he had to interview Jennifer the next day! The blinds steadily increasing, I got myself into trouble one hand re-raising around back with AQs. I got repopped and had to lay the hand down. Sadly, my raise had constitued 25% of my stack at the time and I was NOT happy about. I made the declaration to myself that I was avoiding AQ for the rest of the tournament. (Ah, the wishful thinking of youth!) At one of the breaks I made a quick dash to the restroom--TJ came in behind me and announced loudly to everyone's amusement that we should shake it off and move out! (Forgive me ladies.) Shortly thereafter, the comedy continued! Phil Hellmuth came into the bathroom and started pounding on the wall! Apparently the hand before the bell went off, Phil picked up KK and got himself knocked out of the tournament. Now, I do sympathize with getting a big hand cracked and I know how bad it feels, but I'd only before heard the stories about Phil's temper. I got quick confirmation as a sling of obsceneties came flying out of the stall he was using. I was tempted to stick around and listen to how long it would go on--but my poker "coach" was waiting for my phone call report =). Back to the action: Jim McManus and Jason V. decide to get involved. On the turn the board shows J-T-x-A (w/ two suits) and Jason makes a big raise of Jim's T1000 bet--he makes it T4000. Jim studies for a long time and calls the bet. The river is 7 and both players check it down. Jim shows two pair Jacks and Tens, but Jason informs Jim that he "got there." He shows 98 for a straight and Jim is left shaking his head. He later asks how Jason could've made that raise and Jason quite honestly tells him, "I don't know, either. As soon as I made the raise I knew it was a bad play." After the lunch break, I manage to win three pots in a row. I had raised on the button with AQ (I know, I know!) and got a blind and a limper to come with me. I won the pot with a pot-sized bet on the flop of Q-x-x. I got no callers on the next hand when I raised and I showed them a single Q again. The next hand I got no callers and showed them QQ! It was official; if I didn't have a Q in my hand, I wasn't playing! I'm the new King of Queens. Jason didn't have the same magic when he called with AQ against the player in seat 1 who was all-in. The gentleman showed Jason a real-hand and the flop didn't help anyone. The next hand Jason made a raise from middle position and I re-raised with AQ. He laid his hand down this time and I showed him my hand. He told me that I had him way covered and asked why couldn't HE make AQ work like me. =) It had been worked out over the play of hands that Jim owed Jennifer dinner for the JJs over KQ; that Jason owed Jim dinner for 98 over JT; and that I owed Jason dinner because I always held cards over him. (This last time I held AQ against him, I don't think he was truthful about the hand that he laid down--I think he had me beat, even if it was only a small or medium pair.) I had successfully built my stack up to T11,000! By the time our table was broken I was down to T8000, but feeling very good! I didn't like the fact that my table was broken, actually. I had an excllent working knowledge of my players and felt very comfortable. My new table was home to Kenny "Skyhawk" Flaton and Tony Ma. (Tony had accumulated a MOST massive pile of chips at this stage of the tournament. Apparently he had managed to pick up AA more than 10 times in the first eight hours and everyone of them had held up.) I couldn't get a playable hand at this table and we were anteing T50 per hand when I got there with blinds of T150 and T300, I believe. I lost a quarter of my stack to Kenny Flaton when he raised in steal position (one off the button) to T800. I raised to T2000 with AT in the BB. Kenny pushed all-in. Oops. I really though Kenny was on a steal, but I wasn't going to call all my chips to find out. (I didn't find out who Kenny was until many days later when I was sat next to him in The Big Dance.) I made a mistake. I don't consider my hand against Jim McManus or Kenny Flaton to be a mistake. I firmly believe that I played those hands exactly right, but my instincts were wrong. That's poker. It's going to happen to everyone sometimes. It doesn't happen as often to world-class players, but that's why we call them world-class players. But now, I made a mistake. I was in the BB and everyone folded to the SB who just called the bet and I checked with 43. The flop came A-x-4 (with two suits) and the SB led out with a very small bet. I knew this player would've raised pre-flop with an ace and didn't believe he had a hand. I called the bet and the turn was an off-suit blank. He checked this time and I checked behind him. The river was an off-suit Jack and the SB checked again. I knew that he didn't have a hand and checked behind him. I was right and wrong. He showed me K4 for a pair of Fours with a better kicker. Any reasonable bet would've taken the pot; I'm sure of it. Now, the pot wasn't very large, but I had a better play in this situation than checking. I made a mistake and I wasn't happy about it. I played one AK which didn't flop anything, but mostly just sat around and did nothing. People were constantly moving in their entire stacks and I couldn't do anything about anything. It's easy to play when you're getting cards. What do you do when you're not!? I was down to T2400 before I knew it and steamroller Tony Ma had raised in early position to T1200. I went all-in with AT in middle position and Tony had an easy call with his mountain of chips. He showed me AJ and I exited the tournament about 70th. I was really disappointed. That's the nature of tournaments--you work long and hard and most of the time don't have anything to show for it. But, wow, first place would be such the rush, wouldn't it? But I also felt really good. I had entered a field of 383 players with almost no experience and finished ahead of 313 of them playing at two tables full of people that others have nightmares about! =) I had played mostly well (hell, mostly REALLY well,) all day and was proud of myself. Looking back, I wonder if that one mistake hadn't helped me exit the tournament sooner than I ought to have. If I had a few more chips, I might not have felt compelled to go all-in with THAT hand against Ma and maybe something different would have happened. But I'm not going to let anything rain on my parade; I did good and that's all there is to it. And, be careful, I'll be better prepared for next time. The thing that I found to be of the greatest comfort and value was being able to talk to my poker "coach" during breaks. My friend couldn't come with me to The Series, but I relayed him all the action. Not only was it fun to be able to share the stories of who, what, when, and where, but he helped me to stay focused on my game and to give me a different perspective of events that had already happened. We also went over some pointers that I didn't have at the forefront of my mind when the tournament started and talked about ways to handle certain players and how to set-up traps for other players. There's so much excitement at the series and in a tournament that it really needs to be shared with someone else. That's it for now; I know how long this has become. I'll include a report of my experience in The Championship Event next time. --"Little Boy" Daniel McGrath From: "DM" Newsgroups: rec.gambling.poker Subject: World Series of Poker 2001 - Part II - The Championship Event Date: Sun, 20 May 2001 16:10:00 GMT I felt really good going into Monday's Championship Event. I had played so well in previous satellites and was confident from my experience on Thursday that this tournament was going to be very good for me. I got all dressed up--slacks, shirt, tie, blazer--thinking that if I wanted some press coverage, I need a gimmick =). I also believe that dressing up the image of poker can only have a positive impact. Corporate sponsorship is going to be more eager to support well-dressed players than those that look like degenerate gamblers. (I certainly am not implying anything about anyone, but I think my point is understood.) I arrived just a couple minutes before noon, only to find that we weren't going to begin for at least another hour and a half. So much for tournaments that start on time. I decided to get some lunch, passing Wilford Brimley at one of the blackjack tables on my way. (Hey, that's the guy from "Our House!" But I was far too cool to disturb him. *grin*) The tournament finally begins almost an hour and forty-five minutes late. That's alright, my Subway Asiago Chicken Caesar wrap was good =). As I'm about to look at my first hand, some guy comes up and tells me that I'm in his seat! We pull out our respective receipts and, sure enough, they both say Table 22, Seat 2. Apparently, they had redone most of the seating the day of the tournament, and posted sheets with new seat assignments. Funny, I had been in the tournament area for half an hour and never heard about it. I had been pretty happy with my original table, not recognizing any of the players. My new table, however, was a little different. Seat 1 is Kenny "Skyhawk" Flaton, my arch-nemesis from the last tournament *grin*. (Mental note, don't get involved with this guy!) Seat 9 is Ken Goldstein, whom I've had the pleasure of playing with before somewhere; past experience and his in the money finish at this series reminded me that he was no slouch. Mental note, don't get involved with this guy either.) On my left in seat three is a very quiet, polite, sweet, seemingly out-of-place Irishman. (I'm gonna' run over this guy.) Seat four, the Joker, is occupied by someone boasting that he was the first one out of the tournament last year with KK v. AA. (Let's see if you can do a repeat performance with me.) Seat five is known by both of the Kennys, but not by me. (I'll give you an hour to see what you can do.) Seat six I've played with somewhere before, he has really nice glasses. (I really want your glasses!) Seat seven is an Asian man familiar to both Kennys (probably should stay out of his way...) Seat eight is a cowboy whose wife is standing right behind him behind the rail. (I don't know why, but he's kind of intimidating.) I'm fawning over my red, white, and blue T1000 chips as I get my first playable hand. I never got to touch the red, white, and blue chips in my last tournament 'cuz I didn't last long enough =). They're so pretty......I wonder if I can get my name engraved on one of them.....anyway... The blinds are 25-50 and I'm around back with A5s and I've got one limper in front of me. I call and the BB checks. We take a three handed flop of 9-7-x with two diamonds. It's checked all the way around. (Free card! Great!) The turn is a non-pairing diamond and I'm excited. How excited? Well, Joker (seat four) bets T500 at the pot and I move my entire stack in after about 3 seconds. (Think I'm a little anxious?) So, maybe I didn't handle that so well. Ain't no way I'm gonna' let that board pair and get knocked off my nut hand! (Ah, the inexperience of youth.) I took the pot down and it makes me feel good 'cuz I just won a pot at the World Series =). My first big hand comes up against the guy with nice glasses. Mr. Glasses raises in early position to T150. I call on the button with TT and the BB comes with us. The flop is K-Q-x and it gets checked around. (Two overcards? Scary...) The turn is a blank; the BB checks, Glasses bets the pot, and because something doesn't seem right, I call. If he'd had a K or a Q, wouldn't he have bet the flop? He's not going to give a free card if he's got a good hand. The river is a King and Glasses bets T1500. Now, I go into deep think mode. I don't want to lose my first hand played to the river. I dont' want to lose 1500 in chips! That's three yellow chips, baby! So, I sit and wait. And then it strikes me--I've just picked up my very first poker tell ever. Reading Mike Caro's column actually paid off! A little background: a short while before Glasses got invovled with Cowboy. Glasses made a big bet on the river and it was Cowboy's turn to think. Glasses couldn't stop moving his hands--he'd run them through his hair, he'd scratch his nose, he'd adjust his ring. All the while I'm thinking, "I don't know what he has, but I know he wants a call!" Sure enough, Cowboy calls, Glasses shows AA and takes down the pot. Well, can you guess what Glasses was doing this time? Glasses wasn't do ANYTHING. I watched him for a minute and he scratched his nose once, but other than that, he didn't move. Full of confidence I put my three yellow chips in the pot and Glasses starts to tap the table. YES!!! I would've liked to scream (but me too cool for that.) Glasses turns over 77 and I take the pot. I AM IN THE ZONE. Now, I realize, this wasn't the end all and be all hand of The Series, but everything is heightened when you're at the World Series. Every hand feels like the final table. I manage to steal some blinds, no one really wants to play with me--that's fine with me. The lunch break comes and I go outside to call my coach, but he's working and I can't get ahold of him. I'm not really hungry at all, so I don't know what to do. I run into David Chiu and he says he's going to lunch at the California Pizza Kitchen and would I like to join him? I met David at Commerce during their last major poker tourament. I got to play with him for a little while in a RHO game where he tried to bluff me out of a hand =). David is a really kind and soft-spoken guy. We talked a little bit about our philosophies about food and a little poker. We didn't have much time for our lunch and had to rush back to the tournament. Thanks again for lunch, David. Back to the action: the blinds have gone up to 50-100 and I'm on the button. Cowboy has raised the pot to T400; Kenny Goldstein calls (oh boy...); Kenny Flaton calls (OMG!); I look down and see QQ (don't panic, stay calm, everything will be alright.) I remember the book....it's okay to call with QQ, you don't want to re-raise with it, though. Okay, I'm in; I call. The flop is three rainbow undercards (I love this game!) My three hurdles all check and I'm home free; I bet T1500 and no one calls. Woo-hoo! I now have a very impressive stack of T15,050. David Pham, who's playing at the table beside me (and with whom I had the pleasure of playing in a pot-limit Omaha game the morning before and once at The Bicycle) comes over and says, "Wow," indicating my chips. I know he's teasing me, but it feels good. David already has T20,000+ at this point. This is about the time when the announcer goes around the room introducing allt he past winners of the World Series who are playing today. The first one introduced is Noel Furlong--what a sweet guy. I had the pleasure of playing a satellite with him in which he finished third. I got to hear some stories about Ireland, about his carpeting business, and I got to see why Phil Hellmuth complemented Noel on the way he moved his chips in the tournament two years ago. Noel was one minute chatting like your best friend and the next he was shoving big amounts of chips forward. You never knew when it was going to happen; but when it did, the last thing in the world you wanted was to have two cards in front of you. The last introduction was for Phil Hellmuth. The timing couldn't have been more perfect. Just before, Phil lost a big pot; he lost a pot that almost put him out of the tournament. Phil proceeded to "calmly" slam his fist into the table and asked accusingly, "You called a $1000 raise!?" His introduction was made seconds after that. Phil slammed the table a couple more times just for good measure. Everyone at our table couldn't stop laughing about the great timing. Hellmuth did give the world some great poker this Series, but he gave me more amusement this Series than anything else. Thanks, Phil =). Around this time is when the camera crew goes running over to TJ Cloutier's table and the camera is so close it's almost on top of the table. Annie Duke's seat was empty, so I think this was the hand where TJ got knocked out of the tournament. For those who haven't read the reports: Annie became severely short stacked by TJ when he took off a card on the flop and spiked a set of fives on the turn. She later moves all in with JJ against AA and we've lost one of our top female players. Two hands later, TJ gets all-in against AA, this time with KK. And in three hands we've lost two of our top players. (I just lasted longer than both TJ and Annie Duke. Wow. Oh, to be a kid again. Put $20 on me to win!) Glasses gets eliminated by Joker after turning the boss full house. How can that possibly be, you say? It turns out that Joker had flopped quads. That's gotta' sting! Later that day a dealer told me a story of someone flopping quad threes and losing the hand in this year's tournament! Someone else made quad nines on the river. My table had become a table of limp, limp, raise, no one calls. This had become the normal patten of play. Alright, I can play that game: I picked up AA under the gun. I called. Joker called, Cowboy called, the BB checked. HEY! WAIT A MINUTE! DON'T YOU GUYS KNOW YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO RAISE!? The flop comes K-6-3 with two spades. It's checked to me and I bet T500. Joker raises T2000. Grrrrrr...............I hate this game. Why didn't I listen to my poker coach when he told me not to limp with aces. I know better than to try and play cute. Grrrr........I hate this game. I know I'm beat. I know I'm beat. I know I'm beat. I call. The turn card is an off-suit 9. I check and Joker bets T3500. I know I'm beat. I know I'm beat. I know I'm beat. I call. The river is a non-pairing spade and I check. It's checked behind me and I show AA. My opponent just shakes his head (as if to say, "You moron,") and shows me 63 of hearts for two pair. Stop the ride; I think I'm going to be sick. No one says anything, but I can hear it all. Ah, the inexperience of youth. If you limp with aces you never get broke with aces. Why didn't you raise before the flop? I can't tell you why I didn't just lay the hand down after the flop. Someone has written before about the danger of hoping. I knew with almost 100% certainity that I had the worst hand, but I was hoping I might be wrong. I'm sure everyone can empathize with the situation. No one likes to throw away AA. It's kind of embarassing to share this story, but maybe I can get CardPlayer to publish it and I'll get part of my buy-in back =) heheh. Now, I realize that I still had T9000 in front of me and that's plenty of chips for now. But that pit in the bottom of my stomach that I felt on Thursday after losing to AA is back and it just got about 10,000 miles deeper. I fully understand what happened on the last hand. I played badly at every stage and lost the hand; I recognize that. I am in control, right? But now I feel FEAR. I fear that every hand is going to turn into a loser just like my AA did. I feel like my table image is shot to hell. I feel like an amateur. I feel that I gave away every chance of winning this event with that hand. I'm just a jumble of negative energy. I know it was just one hand, but remember, everything is multiplied by 1000 when you're at the World Series. I was definitely off my game. I couldn't read anymore. Most of the decisions I made were wrong. I didn't understand what my opponents were doing anymore. I couldn't stick to my game plan and was changing gears at the wrong time. Later, with the blinds now at 100-200, my new arch-nemesis in the four seat raised in early position. He had been raising a lot of pots now that he had some chips. He was making a joke about this 1000-chip that the insert sticker had fallen off of. He said he would raise that chip every hand until he lost the chip. He nearly did too. So, I called a raise to T600 in the SB. I knew he was out of line. The flop came 7-5-3. I checked the flop and my opponent bet T1000. All I knew was that he was out of line before the flop and didn't know what to think anymore. With a pair and a draw, I called. The turn brough a Jack and the river brought a King. Both streets were checked and I was shown 87 for a winning pair of sevens. The very next hand my friend in the four seat raises it up again. All pass to me in the SB with AK. (This is some kind of sick joke, right?) All I know is that I don't feel like re-raising and so I just call. I can't confess to really thinking too much at this point; I just didn't have it in me. The BB passes and we see a flop of A-x-x. I check and the pre-flop raiser bets T1000. I call and check again when a blank falls on the turn. My friend bets T1000 again and I feel utter weakness eminating from him. I'm praying he has AQ or AJ. I make either a large raise or an all-in raise and take the pot down. "Well," says Joker, "I guess I win one and I lose one." I wanna' pop the guy one is all I want to do. That's not very civilized, no, but it'd make me feel better. =) No offense intended if that guy should happen to read this! It's bad enough to watch someone take your chips! It's even worse when you watch him give them away!! My friend still has the raising bug and he's tangling with both Kenny Goldstein in the SB and Kenny Flaton in the BB this time. On a flop of K-T-4, Kenny #1 checks and Kenny Flaton makes a T2000 bet. Our friend, the pre-flop raiser, makes it a total of T7750! What the heck kind of raise is that!? Did you just raise Kenny Flaton? As these questions whiz through my mind, I notice that Kenny Goldstein hasn't mucked his hand yet. He wants to play this pot! What could these people possibly be playing with!? I began to suspect that Kenny Goldstein had KT for top two pair! But I was dead sure that a set was out there and I think Kenny Goldstein knew it too. He eventually mucked and Kenny Flaton re-raised all of his chips. It was only another T5000 to call the raise and seat four was pretty well committed to the hand. He turned over AK (what the heck!!?!?) and Kenny Flaton, sure enough, turned over 44 for a set. The turn was a blank and the river was an A to make Kenny Flaton the new table chip leader. Kenny Goldstein commented that he had mucked QJ for the nut-straight. The running joke at the table was that you better just pretend that any chips picked up by Kenny Flaton didn't exist anymore, because they were never coming back! Maybe I should've thought that when Kenny made a normal raise to T600. I looked down to see TT and decided it was worth playing, thinking back to my QQ hand earlier. Our raise happy friend in seat four and on the button re-raised to T1200. All passed to me and perhaps I should've smelled the same thing Flaton smelled. I'd like to have thought that he got out of the pot in deference to me (yeah, right!) I didn't think for too long, thought the re-raise was too modest, and at worst I was an 11-10 favourite in this situation. I shoved my whole stack of about T8000 into the middle, stating that I thought I had the best hand. In his "oh, so lovable" way, Mr. Seat Four turned to me and said, "Nope, you don't." I was up against none other than the famous American Airlines--which immediately flopped a set. I came away from the incident with T625 left. And then our table was broke. I was seated at a new table next to a young kid whom I knew only as "New York." We had played in a satellite the day before. "New York" was nice enough to help me get back on my feet as he raised from early position and I re-raised all-in with A9s. The flop gave no help to either one of us and my nine kicker was good enough to double me through to T1250. And then our table was broken again. Into the corner with me; I take seat 3 at the table in the far back corner of the room. At least, I don't have to worry about them breaking my table for the rest of the night. My table was overly jovial and that turned out to be a bad thing for me. It did help to take my mind off things, but it also took my mind off things (namely the game being played.) I was in survival mode at this stage with my dangerously low stack. I was taking a double-up or leave the tournament attitude. Blinds are still at 100-200; it's the last round of the day. I want some chips to play with tomorrow or I don't want to come back. My first double-up comes with A5s in the BB; I've got about T2400 now. The Frenchman in seat seven raises to T600 and I go all-in; he calls. I show AK and he tells me that I'm in trouble. The flop gives me no help and The Frenchman shows me AKs. "I was suited; you were in trouble if hearts came." Grrrr.....I'm not in the mood for jokes. Very shortly after, seat six raises to T600 and I re-raise all-in with AQ; he calls. I flop a pair of Queens and turn top two. Seat six shows me AQ, as well. What is this?! Are the poker gods playing with my fragile little mind!? =) Twice I'm able to take in some chips when people limp, seat one raises, and I come over the top of him. I'm up to about T4000. The guy sitting next to me is as short stacked as I am (everyone else on this table has more than T15,000.) He's also made comments that he doesn't want to come back tomorrow with T4000; he'd rather sleep in the next day! I raise on the button with 88 and this same guy finally moves all-in; he's been playing pretty patiently up til' this point, but I can feel his "I want to go home vibe." Or maybe I just WANT to feel that vibe. I call with most of my chips and he shows me K9. No help on the flop means I'm back up to T8000! What a comeback! Not much time remaining in the round and it's almost time to call it quits for the day. I'm down to about T6500. We've got a limper in this pot and I limp with 76 in middle position. The button calls and so does the SB; the BB checks and we're on our way in a five handed pot. The flop comes T-9-4 and the SB (The Frenchman) bets out for T650. All pass to me and I stop and think: If I catch a miracle card, I can probably make quite a bit of money. The Frenchman has almost T30,000 and I'm goin' for this. On the turn, comes a beautiful, wonderful, magnificent eight! The Frenchman sneezes at the pot; he bets T500. He's obviously afraid that his pair of tens is no good. I raise it to T1500. The Frenchman calls. The river is another Ten. I love this card. That's my gurantee payoff card. The Frenchman comes out swinging with T1500. I raise it another T1500 (T1050 short of all-in;) I was afraid he might not call a full all-in raise and I definitely wanted more chips. The Frenchman thinks for a long time and finally shakes his head and wings the chips into the pot. I tell him that I have a straight. He asks me, "Which one?" My answer was the immediate, "The losing one." The Frenchman had QJ for the nut straight. There's a saying somewhere about seeing only what you want to see. Well, that's exactly what happened in this hand. I thought about QJ early in the hand and promptly dismissed it. Or was this a case of "Make sure you put them on a hand you can beat?" no matter what contrary evidence may suggest. I don't know; I don't care. I have no problems admitting that 1) I shouldn't have even been in the hand to begin with and 2) I played it badly. =) There was a long and painful process of counting down the chips, filling out these little cards, and then putting everything into ziploc bags. The chips had to be counted down by you, then the dealer counted them, and then a floorman had to come around and count them. Not enough floorman and too much hassle to be done at midnight when the last place I want to be is in that tournament area. I actually left before I got my final verification because it didn't really matter to me if I was missing a chip or two. All I had left, after all, were 42 T25 chips--a total of T1050. I woke up late the next day. I wanted to dress up again, but as it was, I barely made in time to start the tournament. All seats had been re-drawn and I was reunited with Kenny Goldstein; he was on my left now. The blinds are 150-300 and I don't have much time before I get blinded into oblivion. I go through the blinds once and pick up 77 one off the button. There's a raise directly in front of me to T600. I, of course, call all-in. The SB decides to come with us. The flop is 9-9-8. Both players with money left check. The turn is a Jack; both players check. The river is an innocuous six. Did I say innocuous? I meant Spawn of Satan, life-sucking six. Both players check. But the SB turns over 5-7 for a straight and my journey has officially come to an end. I got up from the table, defeated, but wished everyone the best of luck and told them that it was my sincere pleasure. Well, that's it. It's far from glorious, but that was my WSOP experience. It was far from ideal, but it was still a dream come true and I'll be back next year, for sure. I feel like I should have some philosophical closing paragraph here, but I don't even know where to begin. This article was very difficult to write because I don't like to think I'm capable of playing this badly; these definitely aren't my fondest memories. But time and distance lends enchantment to everything and I can smile and laugh about these things now. Each time I replay the events, I see something new or see it from a different angle and that's only going to make me a better player. Hopefully I'll have something exciting to write about when the tournament circuit makes it back to Los Angeles. Thanks for reading... --"Little Boy" Daniel McGrath