Main event Memories Day 2

When the Camel runs out of food he begins to eat himself

Tristan contemplating whether turning down 12k was a good idea or not.

Day 2 Track http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMVnEGcMsFs

Day 2 began very early, at precisely 1 second past midnight I was in the Bellagio sports bar chewing the fat with the Camel and Avner (Israeli Tennis player ((previous life he was ranked number one)), ex alcho drug fiend and all round legend), waiting the arrival of Tristan who had just finished his Day 2. Tristan’s trip up to this point had been one long smelly fart in the face, he couldn’t win a hand at poker live or online but the real misery was he couldn’t win a match at either Golf or Backgammon against me. We love to wind each other up and he was tilting off the charts but during his Day 2 his luck changed and the Camel and I were all too happy to welcome him back from battle with a cold beer, bows and cries of ‘we are worthy’ (which he enjoyed far to much tbh).

He began telling us about his day which he had started from memory with around 40k which I thought was a fortune, he obviously thought there was little point in turning up. He got a tap on the shoulder and was told he was moving, he didn’t know it but it was to the feature TV table. This is obviously a double edged sword, it means publicity and profile but it means there is a famous player on the table (which doesn’t necessarily mean good player but can mean pain in the arse player, aka Hellmouth). The famous player on the table was Daniel Negreanu, probably the 2^nd most famous player in the world and only a couple of players in the history of poker have won more money at poker tournaments than him; he also had over 100k in front of him.

I mean he did have until Tristan got most of it off him during the day which resulted in one happy bunny sharing beers with the Camel and I. Every time Tristan explained a hand it resulted in the Camel repeating at treble the volume and expressed in childish wonderment, e.g. HE HAD NINES! WOOOOOOOOOOW. When he explained a nine fell on the flop I thought we might get thrown out, TRIP NINES! TRIP NINES AHHHHHHHHH was all you could hear in the busy sports bar on a Sunday morning. It was during his catch up that I found out what the offer is to wear a logo at the TV table, 12.5 thousand bucks. Tristan turned it down as he had promised Badbeat he would wear a BlackBelt logo for nothing, great karma imho yet I know full well I would have allowed them to tattoo my face for 12k whilst phoning Badbeat to apologise. Sadly I had to leave the fun earlier than I would have wanted but happily it was because I was playing in a few hours.

I woke up excited, now not just the excitement of the poker day ahead but now i was also in the lottery for a draw at the 12.5 free bonus (which i sadly didn't win). The online table draw reminds me I was at a table for about an hour but nothing of note happened, that all changed pretty fucking quick after getting moved. 5 years earlier all the players at my table would have been sitting on Santa’s knee asking for a scaletrix, now they were playing in a 10k buy in poker event and hadn’t begun shaving.

This was my first ever ‘live’ experience in a deep stack live event with the phenomenon known as ‘the internet player’. One of the reasons I love poker so much if you don’t leave your pride, ego, misconnections, & prejudices at the door or it will work against you so I was prepared to go with the flow and see what happened. What happened was I lost the first two big pots I played never really knowing where i was on each street and then overplayed A-J to be left with a shortstack just 2 hours into play.

Having a shortstack is comparable to having a small penis, a bit embarrassing perhaps but if you know how to turn it to your advantage, know the correct strategy and most importantly of all get lucky at the right time, anything can happen. Keep sticking it in the right places and it does get bigger but you have to be patient and timing is everything. In a tournament that has the best structure in the world a short stack doesn’t have to panic and shove it in with shite, a mistake so many players made it actually shocked me.

I saw one known pro blow a 50k stack on day one and as I was sitting next to him I was able to see his texts to his backers. The Hitler Diaries had more truth in them than his fabricated bollix, ‘Just outdrawn in massive pot with QQ’ (nothing could have been further from the truth) was his particular favourite and it took me back to the days pre internet when you didn’t have to turn your hand over when all in. The amount of players who went out with Aces decreased dramatically once you had to turn your hand over and hands like K-5 and 7-3 knocked out far more players than Queens ever had.

I shared the blinds with 2 of the 3 best players on the table and trust me there was only weak spot on the table. He was a player who had seen better days and either the booze or coke had taken care of him, shame but it happened to quite a few players back in the day and its natural selection in action I guess. Basically I was stuck in an overcrowded lift and couldn’t move; I wavered around 20 bb’s and picked up chips by moving in re-stealing in easy spots. I never had Aces the whole tournament, Kings only on the first day but you don’t need good cards to win, it just makes it easier.

The player on my left was an internet sponsored pro with stars; his stack went as low as 20 bb to ending up with over 100 bb. Some guy called Chris wearing a deepstack’s university live logo kinda owned the table and did it in such a charismatic way I think we all just let him; he ended the day with over 100bb. Some kid wearing Everest poker built up a stack of over 100 bb stack as did some tosser from Austria who joined the table late and bought down the vibe for everyone with an early and totally unnecessary slow roll.

The Everest guy was keeping himself to himself and then Leo Margets came to talk to him wearing very short shorts after having been for a jog, he became very popular with everyone after that. Having said that there was very little banter, just 9 guys playing poker, concentrating and any verbal interaction offered mostly ignored which was a shame as for most of the day I was a spectator enjoying watching some rather fine poker being played by all these well mannered players (Austrian tosser exempt).

I nicked, stole, begged and mostly passed for about eight hours to end the day with 33k and was mightily pleased with myself. I know full well too many players would have given up in this spot but I’m from the chip and a chair school and wasn’t going to bow out that easily. To confirm this my was my old mate Ross Boatman (Ross will often donate up to 80% of his stack in the first 5 minutes of a tournament as he argues he’s a much better short stack player) who was a few tables down from me had turned his 20k into over a 100k by close of play.

I reached the hooker bar and quickly drowned a couple of cold ones. I got told off by Skalie for admitting that on more the one occasion I hadn’t looked at my cards I just shoved on the fact my read was my opponent wouldn’t call, I’m still sure I’m right but has over a million $ in prize money out of the Main Event so maybe I should have given more attention to his case.

I let the backers know the horse was still jumping before going to bed and passing out with exhaustion. I was concerned about what my sleep pattern might be during the Main Event but I needn’t have worried, I slept solidly every night. Looking back on the day I think I learned more in those 10 hours playing live with very good players than I had in the previous 12 months watching training videos. It’s hard to explain but it’s the little things like bet sizing and value betting that they did far better than me. Without doubt it was the longest toughest day I have ever experienced in a poker tournament but I really enjoyed it even with a small penis. Anyway Karma took care of it all by making Day 3 the most memorable day I have had at a poker table, and in a totally good way.