Wednesday, September 08, 2010

Main event Memories Day 3

Ali, the star man.

Club Ryan

The Fearless Mr Cantu.

Woke up at 11 as usual and had to pinch myself, it was Day 3 and i was still in albiet with a tiny stack. After an invigorating shot of berroca i went to Bellegio coffee shop for the usual mulling over what type of apple pastry to have with my coffee. They have over 30 types of apple pastry, they all taste & are priced the same but every morning i dwelt longer on what which one to have than on any poker decision during my months stay in Vegas. After consuming apple pastry and coffee and with I-pod charged up ready to go i made my way to the cardroom just as the clock ticked down to the start of the days play.


On my left was one Brandon Cantu whom i recognised from this clip


and knew this table should be interesting to say the least. Mr Cantu comes from the school of 'any two will do' and he was on my left. On my right were 4 other tiny stacks, one of those belonged to Ali Sarkeshik whom I've nodded too for over 20 years of going to the Vic but had never actually spoken too. On his right was Ryan Young who had won (though i didnt know it at the time) a WSOP bracelet and over 600k. Due to the imbalance of chips it was going rich pickings for the bigger stacks as us shortstacks were waiting for a premuium hand to double up with or at the very least have a bad beat story to tell the backers.

I thought it would be a good while before i'd get involved but i was all in on the 2nd lap and was insta called by Cantu. It had been passed around to me in the small blind where i woke up with the mighty 9-10, bang, all in i declared. When he insta called my heart sank and i knew i had to get lucky, as it happened i did when my 9-10 managed to split the pot verses his 9-2. By this stage Cantu had appeared to have played every pot and he diidnt look like he was in the mood to pass anytime soon. I'm sure he's criticised greatly for it, personnally i loved it and admired his style, brave or foolhardy isnt for me to decide but i just marvelled at the way his stack increased and decreased constantly and anyone could have had a 100-1 they could name his 2 cards anytime he was in a pot. The first time he passed i called the floor asking to see what two cards he could possibly pass, he took the joke well.

He won the most intriguing pot id seen in a while, on the button he raised, the Big Blind repopped him, he repopped the BB moved all in and he insta called. Have a guess what they had? The big blind proudly displayed the AK of clubs but that was no match for Cantu's 8 and 3 off suit when a 3 flopped. Normally the table would be speechless but this table, including the guy who had just had his stack desicrated by the 8-3 just burst out laughing, it was that good a table. Cantu was far from the only star of the show. Ryan with a large stack and 5 small stacks behind him laughed and bullied his way to a bigger stack but the real star of the show was Ali.

I'd never played with Ali other than in the odd 100 pound tournament in the Vic years ago which he just played to amuse himself whilst waiting for the big game to start and i couldn't remeber much about that other than he seemed fairly tight. Indeed Ali himself stated he was a very tight tournament player and though like the rest of us shorties he was waiting for a premuium hand he wasn't going to waste his 10k investment without a little fun and so it began.
The banter was fantastic with all of us getting involved discussing a range of topics from Ryans bad Las Vegas investment he'd made after winning over half a million $, the amount of money Pokerstars make, tales & gossip from the big games, the various bets some us of had made on sports teams and the sunglasses debate arose where it was interesting listening to other views different to view (mine being they shouldn't be banned as people who wear them in poker tournaments are inherently cowardly and so can be exploited). The table was so much fun the one player wearing headphones/hoodie/sunglasses/hat stripped himself bare and joined in the various debates/jokes we all had going.

At one stage we tried to organise for the whole table to have a massage but could only get 5 massueses at the one time. The Tournament Director came over to take a glance at what all the racket was about but hung around to enjoy the fun and said he personnaly thought our table should be moved to the TV table immediatley (realising the 12.5k at stake i may have pressed him a little too aggressively on this).
Every time someone was knocked out they was genuine handshakes and well meant praise for the outgoing player. As us shorties were somehow clinging on and then Ali decided we should start a club. Club Ryan it was called and only the short stacks and Ryan himself were allowed to be members. Everytime he won a pot even if it was against one of us a cry of Club Ryan! was heard around the floor with the occasional high five being landed. Ryan enjoyed the banter but perculiarcly he actually began to play less pots as if somehow embarrassed by all the jovialty and a few of us began to get walks in the Big Blind (if Mr Cantu hadnt raised obviously) and i began thinking had Ali planned this Club Ryan thing all along but quickly put it out of my mind, it just seemed impossible he would be that calculating. In fact the short stacked Ali called a halt to one hand mid pot and declared he didnt think he had put his (running) ante in the pot and the dealer checked the pot to confirm he was right, class i havent seen at a poker table in a long while.

Miracuolsy everytime one of us short stacks got all in we survived without one of us being knocked out before our table broke somewhere just before dinner. As we bagged and tagged andf got moved back to the amazon room we all shook hands and knew we had had a great WSOP experience just by being at that table. Im sure had we not got broken we would have all ploughed into the cocktails after dinner. It reminded me of two things, poker when i used to play it back in the late 90's, lots of banter, poker often being secondary to the gossip/scandal/rumour/humour/wind-ups etc and secondly i liken it to playing poker in Ireland where i cant think of a single time when ive played live and havent enjoyed it win or lose. Perhaps it was the dynamic of so many condemed men (short stacks) awaiting our execution that a swell of gallows humour arose led by its ring master Ali and it just turned into a great craic; whatever, i won't forget those few hours, great fun and of course best of all i was still in the tournament!

The time had flown by as we moved to our new assignemts and by quirk of fate who should be drawn at the same table but the wonderful Ali, the day was going well. It got monstrously more exciting as just as i sat down i saw a pot develop that you wouldnt believe had it been shown in eastenders. I recognised one Billy Kopp, he had spectacular blown his chance (imho obv) the previous year on this hand.
As we were un-bagging our chips we joined to see a board read 884 and the pot was big, it got considerably bigger when and Ace turned and in fact the two table table chip leaders got it all in, Kopp had AA and you can only imagine his face when his opponent turned over 88. For the first time i experienced what friends of mine had been complaining about for years, the poker media turning into a cavalery charge and treating players like shit on their shoes whilst bulldozing mikes, cameras video camera etc to grab a piece of wsop history. I was in such a good mood it didnt bother me but pushing aside players who had invested 10 grand whilst they were in a pot seemed more than little excessive and i knew in my heart of hearts if that happened to me i would explain in the best anglo saxon i could muster where to put their cameras.

After that initial excitement things died down a little, Anthony Lelouche replaced Billy Kopp and he like Ali was worth the admission money, great fun, talented player and very courtious to everybody else. Still being shortstacked i wasnt involved in a lot of pots and to liven things up i ordered a beer, just as i struggled whether to order a bud or coors light (went for the latter, less calories) i had my first tough poker decision of the day. An early player raised and was immediatley rearaised all in by a player who had just joined the table and had about 40k. The opener was Mr Quad eights so he was probably tournament chip leader at this stage. I had 12 big blinds and 10-10. I reluctantly passed and it was probably in no small measure due to the fact i looked at Ali (who had increased his stack from 8 big blinds to over 50 by playing ulta tight and still getting paid off) who gave me a look that kinda said is this the hand you've waited 2 days for? I passed and would have lost.

My beer arrived and it inspired others to order beer, there was only an hour left, time to loosen up a little seemed to be the vibe. As i swallowed my first mouthful i was dealt AK and sprayed all my chips into the pot. I was instantly reraised and assumed id be off to the races on a 50-50. Imagaine my surprise when my opponenet turned over AQ, imagine my surprise when a Queen flopped; imagine my surprise when a King turned, imagine my surprise when no queen hit the river and imagine my surprise when 3 medical staff had to perform the heimlich manoeuvre on me as it appears i'd swallowed the bottle of coors in all the excitement. Now at 20 big blinds and with one bottle of coors in me i began to use the last hour to nick a few pots and end the day on 49k which was just over 20bb and meant i would be going into Day 4 and a shot of getting into the money.

Again to the hooker bar (coincidentally Wayne Rooney had just arrived in Vegas) where the survivors met up with friends and shared a few beers but i was so drained i could only enjoy a couple before bed. Julian told me a tale later which really pleased me and sums up my attitude to poker. He said everyone was converging on the hooker bar, all our friends that were still in and all of them looked miserable. Tristan, George, Padraig, Skalie though all over 6 figures in chips but all were disappointed and most were telling tales of how unlucky they were or how they had had a bad last hour etc etc. He said i was the last to arrive and he said you could see my smile 500 yards away. I was delighted later when he told me that, perhaps it was the joy of still being in or it being such a fun poker day but whatever it was i can never understand how miserable players get when they are playing poker.

I chatted about the day to various people but it seemed the fact i had a small stack made fellow players still in nervous, as if i had a contagious disease. They'd open with "I've got about 300 million, how many u got Spills?" "20 Big Blinds" (sounded more impressive than 49k) "Errr right, good luck cya later mate". I couldn't give a fuck though in all honesty, i was playing my game, they were playing theirs and the old adage of you've gotta be in it to win it never sounded so good.

posted by lionel hutz at 9/08/2010