WSOP 2005 Day 4 part 2
I don't remember much about the couple of hours after dinner. I was getting a lot of respect, and I abused that respect by stealing relentlessly. In a sit and go I'd played a day or two before, I was playing with a poker dealer from out of town. He told me that he sees a lot of players, and he can usually judge what kind of player they are in the first few minutes of meeting them. He then told me, in a very nice way, that I looked "like a guy who would never do anything rash". Well, that's gotta be a good thing. In one way, it definitely is. If I look like the timid quiet type I'll get a lot of respect when I bet and raise. On the other hand, if I look like the timid quiet type people will assume I'm an easy mark for blind steals. I decided then that if that's how I came across, I'd have to bluff a lot more to make up for the number of times people would try to steal my blinds.
At around 130 or so players remaining, I was finally moved over to the "other" side of the room. The good side. I could see all of the limit hold'em tournament tables remaining.... two rows of 6 or 7. It felt pretty damn good. I had a stack that could take me to the money, despite the size of the blinds, as long as nothing crazy happened.
I was seated to the immediate right of Mimi Tran. I didn't know it was Mimi Tran. I didn't know anyone else at the table, either. (Edit: actually, Erik Lindgren was at the table, but more about that later.) Mimi struck me as an extremely unpleasant person. She was very short with the dealers, and with the players. Basically, she was grumpy. She got up to leave for a minute, and I asked the player to her left (two seats to my left, who I'd been chatting with since my move to that table) who she was. Someone had called her 'Mimi', and I wanted to know if it was Mimi Tran. It was. I said "She seems a little bit irritable, eh?" just as she sat down again. Oops. If she heard me (which she probably did) she didn't say anything about it.
I believe we had just made it into the money when Annie Duke sat down 3 seats to my left. I gave Dave a "look", which was returned. Making the money, by the way, was met with a round of applause from the remaining players. Some were applauding as if they just wanted to get the show on the road. Some were ecstatic. I was ecstatic.
Annie has had... ummm... how do I put this... some work done. On her teeth, and maybe on a couple of other places. She looked, I hate to say, kinda hot. Tight Ultimate Bet t-shirt, etc... But then again, I was comparing her to the other woman at the table, Mimi Tran.
The first two hands Annie saw me play, I won pots with A3o and 92o. I liked that her first impression of me was probably that I was a loose cannon. On the A3o hand, someone raised and it put him almost all-in. I re-raised from my big blind to set him in, and he called with KK or QQ I think. I spiked an ace, and that was that.
The 92o hand was much more interesting. Folded to me in the SB, and I raised Mimi's blind. She called. The flop missed me completely, a jack I think and a couple of low cards, with no pair or draw for me. I bet, she called. I was ready to be done with the blind-steal attempt, but a nine fell on the turn. I bet, she called. The river was an ace, and we both checked. I said "a pair of nines". She, of course, wanted to see the nines. I showed my 92o, and she looked absolutely 100% disgusted. Filled with hatred for me, I could feel it. A lot of time passed, and she still hadn't said anything, or flipped over her hand. After an eternity, I said: "Well, are they good, or not?!?". A guy across the table said "Of course they're good, she would have shown you the winner by now if they weren't". Mimi mucked, and I dragged the pot. Annie looked thoughtful.
My chronology is all messed up here, I realize. I don't know if we were in the money at this point. Those hands all happened, but I'm not sure when. Not sure it matters much either, though. Also, I forgot that I played with Erik 'E Dog' Lindgren at this table, for quite a while. He was shortstacked, and got sucked out on, which left him with one $100 chip. He doubled that up, and then tripled that up, and then busted out. He was taking it all extremely well, though, getting excited and shouting in exhileration when he doubled up from an extremely short stack to an extremely short stack. It was pretty funny.
Speaking of shouting, I also forgot to mention that I only shouted in exhileration once in my entire trip. It was in a sit and go at the Rio. The room was full of players still alive (or dying) in one of the $1500 events, and every few minutes or so I'd hear a cry of anguish or of celebration from across the room. I realized that I hadn't made any such outbursts, and it was high time for me to do just that. With three or four of us left in the sit and go, we raced off the green chips. I won the race, for an extra black chip. I leaned back in my chair, pumped my fist, looked at the ceiling, and screamed "YES!!!" as loud as I could. I mean, REALLY loud. My opponents looked at me--a guy who had previous to this moment said maybe two words--like I had gone absolutely out of my head stark raving bonkers. I smiled politely, and got back to work.
Anyways, back to the limit event, towards the end of day one. David Chiu sat down immediately to my right. I love David Chiu, I think he's a great player, but I didn't want to be anywhere near him. Annie was still 3 to my left. Mimi was still immediately to my left, and pissed off at me. This was not a good situation. Fortunately, I had a lot of chips, and Mimi and David didn't. Annie, however, was becoming a real problem. She was raising every other hand it seemed, and people were giving her a lot of room, and a lot of chips. I decided that I'd let someone else get pissed off and play back at her, and switch to survival mode myself, which I did.
One hand was folded around to David and me in the blinds, and David folded his small blind to me. I hadn't looked at my cards, and decided to take a peek. KdQd. David must have had some sort of a premonition. He's that good.
Hellmuth came over to our table at one point and said in a very loud voice: "So you boys decided to come to Vegas to play with the girls, huh. Well lemme tell you, you picked the wrong girls." (Referring of course to Annie and Mimi). Thanks for that, Phil. Now go away.
Mimi busted out, and that seat was empty for a while. I made small talk with Annie, trying to determine whether or not I liked her. I decided that I did. She was nice enough, at least to the people at that table, on that particular night.
The empty seat was filled with a bang. A hand came out of nowhere and slammed 5 or 6 chips onto the felt. The hand was closely followed by Phil Hellmuth. Extremely short-stacked. Sweet. Maybe I'd see him freak out. Better yet, maybe I'd bust him myself. Very very sweet.
Phil immediately started trash-talking the table. He'd focus on Annie, and then on himself for a while. Annie took it well, replying in the type of non-offensive, calming manner that is usually reserved for dealing with young boys who are about to throw a tantrum. Phil started talking, to nobody in particular but I assumed it was to me since I was right next to him, about how there's 5 hours of 'good Phil' and ten minutes of 'bad Phil', but you wouldn't know it if you watched ESPN, etc. I said: "Phil, you sound as if you've been mistreated." He said: "No, I don't feel mistreated. I feel lucky". I said: "You should." I then congratulated him on his new record (making the money in that limit event either tied him for or put him in first place on the all-time WSOP cashes list) and he thanked me, and I you're welcomed him.
Then I almost knocked him out of the tournament. I raised with 88 in MP after it was folded to me. He made a big production out of deciding what to do. He then re-raised me. I re-raised him which I think set him all-in at that point. In any case, we got it all in preflop, so it wasn't a big pot for me to win or lose. My stack wouldn't have taken much of a hit if I lost the pot, but if I won, I'd have knocked Phil out. Phil had KK vs. my 88. The flop came AA8. Phil was motionless and silent. The turn came a king. Phil was motionless and silent, but the crowd lost it. The river was a brick, and Phil won the pot. I said "nice hand" and Phil thanked me. A guy at the next table said "Phil, what happened?" and Phil said "Nothing! I had the best hand and I won." Clearly, he was trying to play it cool.
About a minute later, he said to me in a quiet, half-laughing, nervous kind of voice: "That WAS a pretty good flop for you, though, wasn't it." I replied that yes, yes it was. Phil and Annie then started talking about the poker they'd been playing lately. They weren't playing much. I asked: "why haven't you guys been playing much?". She said: "Phil and I don't have much TIME to actually play poker anymore." I said: "why not?" She didn't answer, I assume because saying "we're too famous" would sound too pretentious.
Everyone wanted Annie's picture. Before Phil sat down, she was posing for pictures during every break. Once, when she was IN A HAND, a guy from the rail asked if he could take a quick picture with her. She laughed and said "I'm kinda busy right now". A second later, I said that the guy must have been kidding. A guy at the other end of the table said that no, he wasn't, he had his camera out and everything. Ridiculous.
On another hand it was folded around to me and Phil in the blinds. I raised with Q9o. Phil was pretty shortstacked again, and had been talking earlier about how he doesn't advocate people going too crazy with defending their blinds. I think that's a bit of a tell, but I'm not sure. So, I raised, and Phil talked and talked about how he KNEW everyone was going to fold to us and he KNEW that when they did I'd raise his blind, etc. I replied that he shouldn't have said that he doesn't often defend his big blind. He looked at his cards, muttered something in disgust, and folded.
Annie busted him shortly thereafter, with, of course her 88 vs. his KK. This time, she hit an eight but he failed to hit the king, and he did the Phil tantrum. Got up, stomped around, swore a lot, told Annie that she'll stop sucking out on him eventually and that he'll beat her in the BIG pots in the BIG games when it REALLY counts, that she plays so bad, etc....  Annie took it all with a smile on her face, and said 'good game Phil'. Phil left. Then he came back a minute later, shook everyone's hand, and said good game. Then he left again, and that was the last I saw of him. Classic.
A hand came up where David raised on the button after it was folded to him, and I 3-bet him from the SB with not much at all because he was shortstacked, but had enough chips left to fold. He folded.
The night ended shortly after, with about 36 or so players remaining. I was EXTREMELY excited. Phil had been replaced by a guy named David Oppenheim on my left, which was a problem, but he was--like most of the other pros except for Annie--extremely shortstacked. More about him on Day 5. I ended the day bagging by chips with a stack that put me right in the middle of the pack, I believe. Full of potential or impending disaster. The next day would tell the tale. It was almost 3:00 am when I went back to my room to sleep, with the next day to start at noon. I was on top of the world, and unable to sleep for an hour or so. I had just made the money for the first time in a WSOP event, and I could not have been happier.
At around 130 or so players remaining, I was finally moved over to the "other" side of the room. The good side. I could see all of the limit hold'em tournament tables remaining.... two rows of 6 or 7. It felt pretty damn good. I had a stack that could take me to the money, despite the size of the blinds, as long as nothing crazy happened.
I was seated to the immediate right of Mimi Tran. I didn't know it was Mimi Tran. I didn't know anyone else at the table, either. (Edit: actually, Erik Lindgren was at the table, but more about that later.) Mimi struck me as an extremely unpleasant person. She was very short with the dealers, and with the players. Basically, she was grumpy. She got up to leave for a minute, and I asked the player to her left (two seats to my left, who I'd been chatting with since my move to that table) who she was. Someone had called her 'Mimi', and I wanted to know if it was Mimi Tran. It was. I said "She seems a little bit irritable, eh?" just as she sat down again. Oops. If she heard me (which she probably did) she didn't say anything about it.
I believe we had just made it into the money when Annie Duke sat down 3 seats to my left. I gave Dave a "look", which was returned. Making the money, by the way, was met with a round of applause from the remaining players. Some were applauding as if they just wanted to get the show on the road. Some were ecstatic. I was ecstatic.
Annie has had... ummm... how do I put this... some work done. On her teeth, and maybe on a couple of other places. She looked, I hate to say, kinda hot. Tight Ultimate Bet t-shirt, etc... But then again, I was comparing her to the other woman at the table, Mimi Tran.
The first two hands Annie saw me play, I won pots with A3o and 92o. I liked that her first impression of me was probably that I was a loose cannon. On the A3o hand, someone raised and it put him almost all-in. I re-raised from my big blind to set him in, and he called with KK or QQ I think. I spiked an ace, and that was that.
The 92o hand was much more interesting. Folded to me in the SB, and I raised Mimi's blind. She called. The flop missed me completely, a jack I think and a couple of low cards, with no pair or draw for me. I bet, she called. I was ready to be done with the blind-steal attempt, but a nine fell on the turn. I bet, she called. The river was an ace, and we both checked. I said "a pair of nines". She, of course, wanted to see the nines. I showed my 92o, and she looked absolutely 100% disgusted. Filled with hatred for me, I could feel it. A lot of time passed, and she still hadn't said anything, or flipped over her hand. After an eternity, I said: "Well, are they good, or not?!?". A guy across the table said "Of course they're good, she would have shown you the winner by now if they weren't". Mimi mucked, and I dragged the pot. Annie looked thoughtful.
My chronology is all messed up here, I realize. I don't know if we were in the money at this point. Those hands all happened, but I'm not sure when. Not sure it matters much either, though. Also, I forgot that I played with Erik 'E Dog' Lindgren at this table, for quite a while. He was shortstacked, and got sucked out on, which left him with one $100 chip. He doubled that up, and then tripled that up, and then busted out. He was taking it all extremely well, though, getting excited and shouting in exhileration when he doubled up from an extremely short stack to an extremely short stack. It was pretty funny.
Speaking of shouting, I also forgot to mention that I only shouted in exhileration once in my entire trip. It was in a sit and go at the Rio. The room was full of players still alive (or dying) in one of the $1500 events, and every few minutes or so I'd hear a cry of anguish or of celebration from across the room. I realized that I hadn't made any such outbursts, and it was high time for me to do just that. With three or four of us left in the sit and go, we raced off the green chips. I won the race, for an extra black chip. I leaned back in my chair, pumped my fist, looked at the ceiling, and screamed "YES!!!" as loud as I could. I mean, REALLY loud. My opponents looked at me--a guy who had previous to this moment said maybe two words--like I had gone absolutely out of my head stark raving bonkers. I smiled politely, and got back to work.
Anyways, back to the limit event, towards the end of day one. David Chiu sat down immediately to my right. I love David Chiu, I think he's a great player, but I didn't want to be anywhere near him. Annie was still 3 to my left. Mimi was still immediately to my left, and pissed off at me. This was not a good situation. Fortunately, I had a lot of chips, and Mimi and David didn't. Annie, however, was becoming a real problem. She was raising every other hand it seemed, and people were giving her a lot of room, and a lot of chips. I decided that I'd let someone else get pissed off and play back at her, and switch to survival mode myself, which I did.
One hand was folded around to David and me in the blinds, and David folded his small blind to me. I hadn't looked at my cards, and decided to take a peek. KdQd. David must have had some sort of a premonition. He's that good.
Hellmuth came over to our table at one point and said in a very loud voice: "So you boys decided to come to Vegas to play with the girls, huh. Well lemme tell you, you picked the wrong girls." (Referring of course to Annie and Mimi). Thanks for that, Phil. Now go away.
Mimi busted out, and that seat was empty for a while. I made small talk with Annie, trying to determine whether or not I liked her. I decided that I did. She was nice enough, at least to the people at that table, on that particular night.
The empty seat was filled with a bang. A hand came out of nowhere and slammed 5 or 6 chips onto the felt. The hand was closely followed by Phil Hellmuth. Extremely short-stacked. Sweet. Maybe I'd see him freak out. Better yet, maybe I'd bust him myself. Very very sweet.
Phil immediately started trash-talking the table. He'd focus on Annie, and then on himself for a while. Annie took it well, replying in the type of non-offensive, calming manner that is usually reserved for dealing with young boys who are about to throw a tantrum. Phil started talking, to nobody in particular but I assumed it was to me since I was right next to him, about how there's 5 hours of 'good Phil' and ten minutes of 'bad Phil', but you wouldn't know it if you watched ESPN, etc. I said: "Phil, you sound as if you've been mistreated." He said: "No, I don't feel mistreated. I feel lucky". I said: "You should." I then congratulated him on his new record (making the money in that limit event either tied him for or put him in first place on the all-time WSOP cashes list) and he thanked me, and I you're welcomed him.
Then I almost knocked him out of the tournament. I raised with 88 in MP after it was folded to me. He made a big production out of deciding what to do. He then re-raised me. I re-raised him which I think set him all-in at that point. In any case, we got it all in preflop, so it wasn't a big pot for me to win or lose. My stack wouldn't have taken much of a hit if I lost the pot, but if I won, I'd have knocked Phil out. Phil had KK vs. my 88. The flop came AA8. Phil was motionless and silent. The turn came a king. Phil was motionless and silent, but the crowd lost it. The river was a brick, and Phil won the pot. I said "nice hand" and Phil thanked me. A guy at the next table said "Phil, what happened?" and Phil said "Nothing! I had the best hand and I won." Clearly, he was trying to play it cool.
About a minute later, he said to me in a quiet, half-laughing, nervous kind of voice: "That WAS a pretty good flop for you, though, wasn't it." I replied that yes, yes it was. Phil and Annie then started talking about the poker they'd been playing lately. They weren't playing much. I asked: "why haven't you guys been playing much?". She said: "Phil and I don't have much TIME to actually play poker anymore." I said: "why not?" She didn't answer, I assume because saying "we're too famous" would sound too pretentious.
Everyone wanted Annie's picture. Before Phil sat down, she was posing for pictures during every break. Once, when she was IN A HAND, a guy from the rail asked if he could take a quick picture with her. She laughed and said "I'm kinda busy right now". A second later, I said that the guy must have been kidding. A guy at the other end of the table said that no, he wasn't, he had his camera out and everything. Ridiculous.
On another hand it was folded around to me and Phil in the blinds. I raised with Q9o. Phil was pretty shortstacked again, and had been talking earlier about how he doesn't advocate people going too crazy with defending their blinds. I think that's a bit of a tell, but I'm not sure. So, I raised, and Phil talked and talked about how he KNEW everyone was going to fold to us and he KNEW that when they did I'd raise his blind, etc. I replied that he shouldn't have said that he doesn't often defend his big blind. He looked at his cards, muttered something in disgust, and folded.
Annie busted him shortly thereafter, with, of course her 88 vs. his KK. This time, she hit an eight but he failed to hit the king, and he did the Phil tantrum. Got up, stomped around, swore a lot, told Annie that she'll stop sucking out on him eventually and that he'll beat her in the BIG pots in the BIG games when it REALLY counts, that she plays so bad, etc....  Annie took it all with a smile on her face, and said 'good game Phil'. Phil left. Then he came back a minute later, shook everyone's hand, and said good game. Then he left again, and that was the last I saw of him. Classic.
A hand came up where David raised on the button after it was folded to him, and I 3-bet him from the SB with not much at all because he was shortstacked, but had enough chips left to fold. He folded.
The night ended shortly after, with about 36 or so players remaining. I was EXTREMELY excited. Phil had been replaced by a guy named David Oppenheim on my left, which was a problem, but he was--like most of the other pros except for Annie--extremely shortstacked. More about him on Day 5. I ended the day bagging by chips with a stack that put me right in the middle of the pack, I believe. Full of potential or impending disaster. The next day would tell the tale. It was almost 3:00 am when I went back to my room to sleep, with the next day to start at noon. I was on top of the world, and unable to sleep for an hour or so. I had just made the money for the first time in a WSOP event, and I could not have been happier.
Comments
That alone would have been worth the trip for me. rotflmao
LMAO
I get that really dirty unclean/washed feeling when I see this man!
He is almost like the mosquito that bites you and you swat him. Thanks for that, Phil. Now go away.
Congrats again.
It got so bad, I finally started to equate anyone that questioned my own plays in any tournament to Phil himself.
So if someone whines to me after they lose a hand, I have been known to get testy.
Some recent examples of comebacks to these types are:
1. Yeah, OK Phil thanks.
2. Sorry, there already is a Phil Hellmuth
3. Waaaaaaa
(just used #3 recently. when he tried to continue with the shpiel again, then all I said was, "I repeat", then he laughed and left the table.
Annie Duke looking hot!!
Shit talking at the table!!
Antonio - Edgar CHAT! OMFG!
Sklansky should stop writing about Theory of Poker, and start writing about "Funny Talk at a Poker Table" - NY TIMES BEST SELLER
I can't wait for Part 5, IM IN SUSPENSE!!!!!
PS, got a pic of Annie? HUBBA HUBBA!
Congratulations Devin. Pretty wild stuff. :-)
BTW - I thought camera's were illegal in casinos? If I were a superstar poker player, having tourists asking to take my photo every 3 minutes while I was playing would realllly suck. Star gazing is one thing, but to interrupt someone while they are in the middle of a game is brutal.
Oh, here is one question I was wondering...were they serving drinks at the tables? Any wait staff? Or if you wanted a drink - did you have to go to the bar? Also, was anyone drinking alcohol during the events? Did you have any? I know from playing with you that you enjoy a beverage or two, so I could see you having maybe a couple to loosen up, but not having like 15 like Men the Master or anything...
One last thing...you said that Annie Duke was hot? Were you not just delerious from poker, or was she legitimately sweet. I can never tell from TV - sometimes she looks like she could be prime cougar material if you are drunk enough, and its dark enough, but other times she looks like she has smoked about 100,000 cigarettes too many...
Great reports so far...can't wait for the final table report about your experience "under the lights."
Al, to answer your questions:
They certainly are in Canada. They don't appear to be illegal in Vegas. EVERYONE had a camera. Not everyone had a press pass though (Dave did, which explains why he was able to get such great pictures) and those without a press pass weren't allowed inside the tournament playing area. They could, however, stand on the rail and hope that a pro was at a table close to them, which was the case with Annie... her back was right against the rail.
Yes, drinks were available at the tables via wait staff, and everything was free, including booze.
Yes.
No. The total number of beers I had to drink at any WSOP table was zero. Unlike our BIPC games, which I view as mostly social occasions, where I like to have at least eight.
Funny story actually... right before I left for Vegas I was talking to my mom, and she said: "well, don't do anything crazy at the tables. Don't play high or drunk or anything". (She knows I have occasionally sampled marijuana in the past.) I killed myself laughing. God love her, she was giving me good advice, but I'm about the least likely person in the world to get hammered when I'm playing for any kind of significant money.
Well, not Evelyn Ng hot, but certainly not unattractive. Evelyn Ng, BTW, was at the WSOP. She walked by me at one point, and she was dressed to the nines. Wow. That is something that every man needs to see. As for Annie, like I said, she's had some work done. It's amazing how certain kinds of work can change a man's immediate first impression from 'no' to 'yes'. And as for the smoking, the work she's had done on her teeth helps with that, and I assume she's had something done for her skin, as well. This is all speculation though... I have no proof of any of it.
In one break, there were 7 or 8 of us left, and one player came around and told us that a 6-way chop would give us around 150K each. I didn't really say much about whether I'd be interested or not... I know for a fact that two guys weren't interested at all.
Then, at another break, we were down to 6, with me in 6th place. We returned to the table, and before the cards were in the air, the guy to my left asked me if 'Player X' talked to me about a deal during that break. That time, nobody had. I laughed, and said that no, he didn't. I was the shortstack. I assume Player X's deal was proposed for after I busted out, which is why I wasn't informed.
At any rate, the guy who asked me about it at the table said that it didn't look like it was going to happen; a couple of guys were really opposed to the idea, and he was one of them.
Did a deal happen? I have no idea. Also, I don't know if they're allowed at the WSOP. Of course, even if they're 'not allowed' that doesn't mean they don't happen.
I also think Moneymaker offered Farha a straight up chop when Money had the lead. Farha chose not to take it.