Dave's WSOP Adventure -- May 25 morning
May 25 In the morning
I have good news, bad news, and mostly good news.
First the best news. With 270 players remaining (2300 have been eliminated!) I am still very much alive. The average is around 90K and I have 189,700. 225 places will be paid. It is very likely that I will make it to the money. Ralph, also, it still alive. He is very short stacked at only 25K. we have certainly had very different experiences. I have sailed most of the way with a big stack giving me lots of room to gamble and make mistakes. Ralph has always been on life support and has really had to play well to keep afloat.
Other good news, I am really relaxed. A year of preparing myself to play at this level has paid off. I deserve to be here. I am calm. And the stress of getting deep into a poker tournament has not yet arrived. I honestly believe that even if I make the final table I will never feel too much pressure. It’s too much fun. In fact, I don’t even have “poker-stink.â€
Stress sweat and athlete sweat smell different (to me at least). After several hours in the trenches a player gets the poker-stink on him. It’s a lot of stress. A lot. Yesterday I wore my William Hung T-shirt and Canadian Poker Player jacket all day. The shirt is a blue T-shirt with William’s famous quote on the front in plain white text: “I have no professional training. I already gave my best. I have no regrets.†It seemed appropriate. Here is the good news… I could wear the shirt again today. NO poker-stink.
The other good sign is that I am still having no trouble sleeping. I am only getting about six hours per night but I have prepared myself for that with years of sleep deprivation.\
In other news, just before the start of the tournament I was in my room. The cleaner was there. On my way out I tipped her $100. She said “thank you†and then looked at the bill and went nuts! She chased me into the hall and I got a big hug from a thrilled, and teary, Plaza staff member. Made me feel good.
On to yesterday’s tournament… The theme is “Having dreams come true and going to war with the best of them.â€
I am not going to report on as many hands in this report because I got big stacked early on and when I get big stacked I play A LOT of hands. I will try and include the important hands – one’s in which I made a bad mistake or played well.
I start off at table 78 which is right near the street but the table is broken immediately and I am moved to table 93 seat three. That is where I remain for the whole of the day. This is always a good situation since they have to come to you. You only have to put one player in a box at a time once you solve the other pieces of the puzzle. It helps to keep a person focussed.
Level 7 – $50 ante $200-400 My stack $59,000
If I finish high in this tournament there are two reasons to date: yesterday’s three-out ace on the river and… level 7. This was the most amazing 1:40 of poker I have had the pleasure of taking part in. I would like to attribute something to myself but, frankly, I got RUN OVER by the deck.
At table 98 Russ Rosenblom (sp?) is in table 10. He is the only player that I know and many will know him from the WSOP final table the year Robert Varkonyi won. I met Russ at the 1998 BARGE (I think) although I doubt he remembers me. Unfortunately for Russ, I bust him in the first lap of the button. The first hand I raise UTG with A-Q. He flat calls on the button. Flop is 7-6-4. I check, he bets and I check raise him all-in. He folds. In the very next hand I am the big blinds. It is checked to Russ on the button he raises. I defend with A-Q. Flop A-T-2. I check. Russ checks. Turn is a 4. I check. Russ bets. I check raise him all-in. He calls with A-5 and I bust him. I was very relieved by this. Russ is, I think, a very good player and he would have given me trouble all day.
Next lap of the button I have in the big-blind with A-K. The UTG player raises, it is folded around to me and I put him all in. He calls with Q-Q. King on flop. I bust another. After 40 minutes I have 90K.
Now comes the AMAZING part of the story. The six seat has been empty since we started. His chips are there but he isn’t. He finally arrives after about an hour. Average stack is about $25K and he has $65K. He plays THREE HANDS only. In the first hand there is a small UTG raise. I call in the cutoff with 4-3s. Missing-man calls in the big blind. Flop is 4-4-3. Pretty good flop for me, heh. Both check to me, I bet. Missing man check-raises me. I give it some though but decide that I do not want to risk amy more cards I re-raise and he folds. The next hand we both fold. The hand after that there is one limper, I raise with A-A and missing-man calls on the button (so does the limper). Flop is A-A-3 (did I mention the deck ran over me?). Limper checks. I check. Missing man announces “I’m all-in†and shoves his remaining $50K into the pot. Gosh, “I call.†Wow. This story got told and re-told at our table all throughout the day.
Other hands in level 7 I flop two-pair twice and a set once. It was an UN-BE-LIEVABLE run of cards and luck.
Level 8 -- $75 ante $300-600 My stack $162,000
I was, at this point, the chip leader for the whole damn thing. I am told I got some nice press on pokerpages.com. I have befriended Mark Napolitano of pokerpages. It is no surprise to me that Pokerpages.com is a great site – Mark is a very smart and pleasant fellow. For those interested you can find me there as a “player profile.†The Hendon Mob guys were also reporting and had me as chip leader. I made some very nice steals and re-steals in this level that I will not bother reporting.
Level 9 -- $100 ante $400-800 My stack $193,000
The theme for the remainder of the day is: “Get close to $200K and then blow a bunch of chips off with stupid play.†I did it at least three times. I might have finished the day with $300K if I had been a little smarter.
I take notes on a digital voice recorder as I play (very smart way to do it by the way). I note that at one point during this level I told myself “You are playing poorly… slow down.†I think I started to push too hard because of the sheer size of my stack AND because of the adrenaline. I needed to focus on the fact that I had a GREAT table (nobody that had a re-re-steal in their arsenal). I still have three levels to dismantle their chip stacks. I needed to relax and take my time with good opportunities.
I do take a $40K this level with I slow play A-A pre-flop and the big-blind (Larry from L.A.) flops two pair.
Two other things that I make note of this level… I continue to me amazed how little focus SO MANY of the players have. Robert Williamson is moved to our table. He is a WSOP bracelet winner. He spends two hours chatting and getting a massage. It is possible that he is focussed throughout this but I couldn’t be.
Level 10 -- $100 ante $500-1000 My stack $150,000
An interesting hand played out early in this level. Most of the players were passive with the exception of one fairly big stacked european player wearing a pokerchamps.com T-shirt. He FREQUENTLY raised pre-flop. I had also seen him make a big steal raise after a series of limpers. The problem was that is was hard for me to get at his chips because he was four seats to me left. Thus, he didn’t tend to move on my blinds. I decided I needed to set him up by limping in with a big hand (this is why, actually, that I limped A-A in the previous level).
In any event, I limped in with 5-3s. Pokerchamp raises to $5K in the small blind and the big-blind calls. I felt his raise was too big to represent K-K or A-A. Similarly, I felt that the big blind was looking to flop a set to a small/medium pocket pair. I re-raise to $25K. After a lot of time in the tank – first one and then the other – they both fold. As I am raking the pot Pokerchamp says to the guy beside him “He must have aces.†So… I show him 5-3s. Although some will argue that this is a bad idea because you are just being asked for a call the NEXT time I think it has the opposite effect at times. It clearly says: “Be careful who you are dealing with.†I think it puts players who play by rote under a lot of stress. They now KNOW that every hand I play I am capable of forcing some hard decisions on them.
The other thing that happens in level 10 is that Annie Duke gets moved onto the table. PROBLEM PROBLEM PROBLEM. My little chip farm is about to be ruined by one of the best. I knew, right then and there, that Annie and I would be going to war.
CELEBRITY NEWS: Rob and Amber from Survivor were spotted. Her father is in the tournament with 450 players left. Ben Affleck did NOT play but he was in town. He played in a $2,000 buy-in no-limit game with Moneymaker at the Palms.
Feeling good during the level I asked the washroom attendant: “Has anyone tipped you yet?†Nobody had. It is a GROSS job. Hundreds of poker-stink players filing in and messing the place up and not one of them tipped him. So… I gave him $100 too. Hmm… considering I have also tipped a cab driver who’s wife is in pharmacy school $100 on this trip I better make it to the money or I am really going to be in a hole. The cab drive lept out his cab (also teary eyed) and ran around to shake my hand.
BABOON HAND: I made a bad bluff against a player this level. Settle… settle…
Level 11 -- $200 ante $600-1200 My stack $160,000
The average stack is $60K.
Phil Hellmuth is knocked out elsewhere in 414 spot.
Here comes the Annie Duke saga. For those that do not know Annie she is one of the top players in the world. Very dangerous. Very aggressive. Very skilled. Let the games begin…
I raise UTG with K-4s. Annie re-raises on the button to 12K. I re-raise her $25K more and she folds.
Next hand does not involve me but is part of the story. Annie makes a late position raise against a passive ROCK in the big blind. He calls. Flop is 9-T-J with two hearts. ROCK either check-raises her or bets out (I can’t remember which). Annie, after a LONG time in the tank, calls. Rock bets all-in on the turn. Annie calls. I was thinking to myself that she was in BIG trouble because he was a ROCK. Nope… Annie is right and I am wrong. She has the best hand. He has Q-T for middle pair and top straight draw. She has J-8 for top pair ignorant straight draw. On the river he hits a ten and wins the pot. Annie is out of her chair looking for people to vent to. The ROCK’s feelings are noticeably hurt.
Now comes the next hand…
I raise in middle position with 9-8s. Annie re-raises from the big blind. I call. Flop is A-Q-7 none of my suit. I completely miss. Annie bets. I decide to call and see if she can bet again. She can’t she checks. Aha! She has fallen for my little trap. I tap all-in. Nope. I have fallen for her little trap. She has A-Q. Ugh. I made a $50K drawing dead bluff against one of the best players in the world. Frack. Dumb dumb dumb. Annie gets out of her chair again. Ralph, sitting nearby, tells me later that she actually tells the ESPN camera how she took me to school. A couple of the players at the table were really bothered by it. I wasn’t and I said so: “It’s bothering all of you a lot more than me.â€
Couple more hands before we get to THE hand… I flop a set of four that stand up against a flush draw and run my stack back up to $200K. And then I lose a hand to player on my left and run my stack back down to $150K. We take a break for 15 minutes.
I hit the bottom of the escalator on my way outside. As I walk past Annie she is telling Gus Hansen about the $50K bluff I made. You know, I like to talk about hands that I played. Heck, I write this report every day. But at that moment I snapped. On behalf of us amatuer players everywhere I thought “You know, some of us can play this game pretty well.†For whatever reason, telling ESPN didn’t bother me but finding her boasting to another of the pros stuck in my craw. It didn’t bother me insofar as it took me off my game I just thought of it as irritating.
Level 12 -- $200 ante $800-1600 My stack $150,000
Well… revenge is to be mine I suppose…
I raise Annie’s blind in middle position with J-8s. Annie calls. Flop is T-9-4. Both check. Turn card is a 4. Annie bets $8K. I am not getting the odds to call but I thought I might get a little more from her on the river if I hit my straight. I call. River is a sweet seven (ah…). She bets $15K. I call. She taps the table because she knows she is beat. I show. She folds.
Two hands later it is my big-blind. Annie raises on the button. I call in the big blind with Q-8s. The flop is A-J-8 and the A-J are spades. I have bottom pair and a flush draw. I have A LOT of outs. I check. Annie bets $4K. I check-raise to $16,000. She thinks for a while and re-raises me ANOTHER $37K. I believe she is capable of making that bet with a lot of hands… She could, I think, be bluffing. She could have an ace. I re-re-re-raise all-in. The combination of “annie might be bluffing†plus “I have at least 9 outs and probably 14 outs†was enough for me to put the pressure back on her. Annie thinks for a long while. She has about $25K in front of her. So, she is facing a call of $25K into a pot of about $110K. I think she had an ace. She counted down her stack and was, I think, trying to figure out if she had enough chips left to carry on or if she needed to call and hope I was bluffing. Eventually, she folded.
I tossed my hand face up in the middle of the table and said, “Make sure you tell Gus about that hand too.â€
I feel bad about it today. It is not my style to talk trash but I just sort of snapped. Maybe I am feeling more of the pressure than I realize.
A couple of hands later Annie went bust when Pokerchamp called her king high bluff.
If there is a lesson, I think it is that the top pros need to be careful about portraying themselves as a small and important clique. We are all playing the same game and whether us amateurs play well or not, we do not deserve to be belittled.
I finish with $189,700. Wow. What a ride.
The good news is that there is now only 270 slack jaws left to iron out. And… only 45 more players until the money. Although, I haven’t actually looked at the payout structure because, you know, I just want to win. I know first is $5 million and that is where my sites are.
Today we play 5 level of two hours each. By the time we are done we will be playing $1000 ante $3000-6000. There are still lots of weak-tight rocks in the field. A LOT of them will go pop today.
For today’s shirt I have chosen a short sleeve back shirt with green dollar signs all over it. I got it from Jeff at our staff Christmas party and it seems appropriate o that I wear it on the day that I expect to make it into the money at the biggest poker tournament in the world. Thanks Jeff.
Fear the Buddha baby! Fear the Buddha!
I have good news, bad news, and mostly good news.
First the best news. With 270 players remaining (2300 have been eliminated!) I am still very much alive. The average is around 90K and I have 189,700. 225 places will be paid. It is very likely that I will make it to the money. Ralph, also, it still alive. He is very short stacked at only 25K. we have certainly had very different experiences. I have sailed most of the way with a big stack giving me lots of room to gamble and make mistakes. Ralph has always been on life support and has really had to play well to keep afloat.
Other good news, I am really relaxed. A year of preparing myself to play at this level has paid off. I deserve to be here. I am calm. And the stress of getting deep into a poker tournament has not yet arrived. I honestly believe that even if I make the final table I will never feel too much pressure. It’s too much fun. In fact, I don’t even have “poker-stink.â€
Stress sweat and athlete sweat smell different (to me at least). After several hours in the trenches a player gets the poker-stink on him. It’s a lot of stress. A lot. Yesterday I wore my William Hung T-shirt and Canadian Poker Player jacket all day. The shirt is a blue T-shirt with William’s famous quote on the front in plain white text: “I have no professional training. I already gave my best. I have no regrets.†It seemed appropriate. Here is the good news… I could wear the shirt again today. NO poker-stink.
The other good sign is that I am still having no trouble sleeping. I am only getting about six hours per night but I have prepared myself for that with years of sleep deprivation.\
In other news, just before the start of the tournament I was in my room. The cleaner was there. On my way out I tipped her $100. She said “thank you†and then looked at the bill and went nuts! She chased me into the hall and I got a big hug from a thrilled, and teary, Plaza staff member. Made me feel good.
On to yesterday’s tournament… The theme is “Having dreams come true and going to war with the best of them.â€
I am not going to report on as many hands in this report because I got big stacked early on and when I get big stacked I play A LOT of hands. I will try and include the important hands – one’s in which I made a bad mistake or played well.
I start off at table 78 which is right near the street but the table is broken immediately and I am moved to table 93 seat three. That is where I remain for the whole of the day. This is always a good situation since they have to come to you. You only have to put one player in a box at a time once you solve the other pieces of the puzzle. It helps to keep a person focussed.
Level 7 – $50 ante $200-400 My stack $59,000
If I finish high in this tournament there are two reasons to date: yesterday’s three-out ace on the river and… level 7. This was the most amazing 1:40 of poker I have had the pleasure of taking part in. I would like to attribute something to myself but, frankly, I got RUN OVER by the deck.
At table 98 Russ Rosenblom (sp?) is in table 10. He is the only player that I know and many will know him from the WSOP final table the year Robert Varkonyi won. I met Russ at the 1998 BARGE (I think) although I doubt he remembers me. Unfortunately for Russ, I bust him in the first lap of the button. The first hand I raise UTG with A-Q. He flat calls on the button. Flop is 7-6-4. I check, he bets and I check raise him all-in. He folds. In the very next hand I am the big blinds. It is checked to Russ on the button he raises. I defend with A-Q. Flop A-T-2. I check. Russ checks. Turn is a 4. I check. Russ bets. I check raise him all-in. He calls with A-5 and I bust him. I was very relieved by this. Russ is, I think, a very good player and he would have given me trouble all day.
Next lap of the button I have in the big-blind with A-K. The UTG player raises, it is folded around to me and I put him all in. He calls with Q-Q. King on flop. I bust another. After 40 minutes I have 90K.
Now comes the AMAZING part of the story. The six seat has been empty since we started. His chips are there but he isn’t. He finally arrives after about an hour. Average stack is about $25K and he has $65K. He plays THREE HANDS only. In the first hand there is a small UTG raise. I call in the cutoff with 4-3s. Missing-man calls in the big blind. Flop is 4-4-3. Pretty good flop for me, heh. Both check to me, I bet. Missing man check-raises me. I give it some though but decide that I do not want to risk amy more cards I re-raise and he folds. The next hand we both fold. The hand after that there is one limper, I raise with A-A and missing-man calls on the button (so does the limper). Flop is A-A-3 (did I mention the deck ran over me?). Limper checks. I check. Missing man announces “I’m all-in†and shoves his remaining $50K into the pot. Gosh, “I call.†Wow. This story got told and re-told at our table all throughout the day.
Other hands in level 7 I flop two-pair twice and a set once. It was an UN-BE-LIEVABLE run of cards and luck.
Level 8 -- $75 ante $300-600 My stack $162,000
I was, at this point, the chip leader for the whole damn thing. I am told I got some nice press on pokerpages.com. I have befriended Mark Napolitano of pokerpages. It is no surprise to me that Pokerpages.com is a great site – Mark is a very smart and pleasant fellow. For those interested you can find me there as a “player profile.†The Hendon Mob guys were also reporting and had me as chip leader. I made some very nice steals and re-steals in this level that I will not bother reporting.
Level 9 -- $100 ante $400-800 My stack $193,000
The theme for the remainder of the day is: “Get close to $200K and then blow a bunch of chips off with stupid play.†I did it at least three times. I might have finished the day with $300K if I had been a little smarter.
I take notes on a digital voice recorder as I play (very smart way to do it by the way). I note that at one point during this level I told myself “You are playing poorly… slow down.†I think I started to push too hard because of the sheer size of my stack AND because of the adrenaline. I needed to focus on the fact that I had a GREAT table (nobody that had a re-re-steal in their arsenal). I still have three levels to dismantle their chip stacks. I needed to relax and take my time with good opportunities.
I do take a $40K this level with I slow play A-A pre-flop and the big-blind (Larry from L.A.) flops two pair.
Two other things that I make note of this level… I continue to me amazed how little focus SO MANY of the players have. Robert Williamson is moved to our table. He is a WSOP bracelet winner. He spends two hours chatting and getting a massage. It is possible that he is focussed throughout this but I couldn’t be.
Level 10 -- $100 ante $500-1000 My stack $150,000
An interesting hand played out early in this level. Most of the players were passive with the exception of one fairly big stacked european player wearing a pokerchamps.com T-shirt. He FREQUENTLY raised pre-flop. I had also seen him make a big steal raise after a series of limpers. The problem was that is was hard for me to get at his chips because he was four seats to me left. Thus, he didn’t tend to move on my blinds. I decided I needed to set him up by limping in with a big hand (this is why, actually, that I limped A-A in the previous level).
In any event, I limped in with 5-3s. Pokerchamp raises to $5K in the small blind and the big-blind calls. I felt his raise was too big to represent K-K or A-A. Similarly, I felt that the big blind was looking to flop a set to a small/medium pocket pair. I re-raise to $25K. After a lot of time in the tank – first one and then the other – they both fold. As I am raking the pot Pokerchamp says to the guy beside him “He must have aces.†So… I show him 5-3s. Although some will argue that this is a bad idea because you are just being asked for a call the NEXT time I think it has the opposite effect at times. It clearly says: “Be careful who you are dealing with.†I think it puts players who play by rote under a lot of stress. They now KNOW that every hand I play I am capable of forcing some hard decisions on them.
The other thing that happens in level 10 is that Annie Duke gets moved onto the table. PROBLEM PROBLEM PROBLEM. My little chip farm is about to be ruined by one of the best. I knew, right then and there, that Annie and I would be going to war.
CELEBRITY NEWS: Rob and Amber from Survivor were spotted. Her father is in the tournament with 450 players left. Ben Affleck did NOT play but he was in town. He played in a $2,000 buy-in no-limit game with Moneymaker at the Palms.
Feeling good during the level I asked the washroom attendant: “Has anyone tipped you yet?†Nobody had. It is a GROSS job. Hundreds of poker-stink players filing in and messing the place up and not one of them tipped him. So… I gave him $100 too. Hmm… considering I have also tipped a cab driver who’s wife is in pharmacy school $100 on this trip I better make it to the money or I am really going to be in a hole. The cab drive lept out his cab (also teary eyed) and ran around to shake my hand.
BABOON HAND: I made a bad bluff against a player this level. Settle… settle…
Level 11 -- $200 ante $600-1200 My stack $160,000
The average stack is $60K.
Phil Hellmuth is knocked out elsewhere in 414 spot.
Here comes the Annie Duke saga. For those that do not know Annie she is one of the top players in the world. Very dangerous. Very aggressive. Very skilled. Let the games begin…
I raise UTG with K-4s. Annie re-raises on the button to 12K. I re-raise her $25K more and she folds.
Next hand does not involve me but is part of the story. Annie makes a late position raise against a passive ROCK in the big blind. He calls. Flop is 9-T-J with two hearts. ROCK either check-raises her or bets out (I can’t remember which). Annie, after a LONG time in the tank, calls. Rock bets all-in on the turn. Annie calls. I was thinking to myself that she was in BIG trouble because he was a ROCK. Nope… Annie is right and I am wrong. She has the best hand. He has Q-T for middle pair and top straight draw. She has J-8 for top pair ignorant straight draw. On the river he hits a ten and wins the pot. Annie is out of her chair looking for people to vent to. The ROCK’s feelings are noticeably hurt.
Now comes the next hand…
I raise in middle position with 9-8s. Annie re-raises from the big blind. I call. Flop is A-Q-7 none of my suit. I completely miss. Annie bets. I decide to call and see if she can bet again. She can’t she checks. Aha! She has fallen for my little trap. I tap all-in. Nope. I have fallen for her little trap. She has A-Q. Ugh. I made a $50K drawing dead bluff against one of the best players in the world. Frack. Dumb dumb dumb. Annie gets out of her chair again. Ralph, sitting nearby, tells me later that she actually tells the ESPN camera how she took me to school. A couple of the players at the table were really bothered by it. I wasn’t and I said so: “It’s bothering all of you a lot more than me.â€
Couple more hands before we get to THE hand… I flop a set of four that stand up against a flush draw and run my stack back up to $200K. And then I lose a hand to player on my left and run my stack back down to $150K. We take a break for 15 minutes.
I hit the bottom of the escalator on my way outside. As I walk past Annie she is telling Gus Hansen about the $50K bluff I made. You know, I like to talk about hands that I played. Heck, I write this report every day. But at that moment I snapped. On behalf of us amatuer players everywhere I thought “You know, some of us can play this game pretty well.†For whatever reason, telling ESPN didn’t bother me but finding her boasting to another of the pros stuck in my craw. It didn’t bother me insofar as it took me off my game I just thought of it as irritating.
Level 12 -- $200 ante $800-1600 My stack $150,000
Well… revenge is to be mine I suppose…
I raise Annie’s blind in middle position with J-8s. Annie calls. Flop is T-9-4. Both check. Turn card is a 4. Annie bets $8K. I am not getting the odds to call but I thought I might get a little more from her on the river if I hit my straight. I call. River is a sweet seven (ah…). She bets $15K. I call. She taps the table because she knows she is beat. I show. She folds.
Two hands later it is my big-blind. Annie raises on the button. I call in the big blind with Q-8s. The flop is A-J-8 and the A-J are spades. I have bottom pair and a flush draw. I have A LOT of outs. I check. Annie bets $4K. I check-raise to $16,000. She thinks for a while and re-raises me ANOTHER $37K. I believe she is capable of making that bet with a lot of hands… She could, I think, be bluffing. She could have an ace. I re-re-re-raise all-in. The combination of “annie might be bluffing†plus “I have at least 9 outs and probably 14 outs†was enough for me to put the pressure back on her. Annie thinks for a long while. She has about $25K in front of her. So, she is facing a call of $25K into a pot of about $110K. I think she had an ace. She counted down her stack and was, I think, trying to figure out if she had enough chips left to carry on or if she needed to call and hope I was bluffing. Eventually, she folded.
I tossed my hand face up in the middle of the table and said, “Make sure you tell Gus about that hand too.â€
I feel bad about it today. It is not my style to talk trash but I just sort of snapped. Maybe I am feeling more of the pressure than I realize.
A couple of hands later Annie went bust when Pokerchamp called her king high bluff.
If there is a lesson, I think it is that the top pros need to be careful about portraying themselves as a small and important clique. We are all playing the same game and whether us amateurs play well or not, we do not deserve to be belittled.
I finish with $189,700. Wow. What a ride.
The good news is that there is now only 270 slack jaws left to iron out. And… only 45 more players until the money. Although, I haven’t actually looked at the payout structure because, you know, I just want to win. I know first is $5 million and that is where my sites are.
Today we play 5 level of two hours each. By the time we are done we will be playing $1000 ante $3000-6000. There are still lots of weak-tight rocks in the field. A LOT of them will go pop today.
For today’s shirt I have chosen a short sleeve back shirt with green dollar signs all over it. I got it from Jeff at our staff Christmas party and it seems appropriate o that I wear it on the day that I expect to make it into the money at the biggest poker tournament in the world. Thanks Jeff.
Fear the Buddha baby! Fear the Buddha!
Comments
This actually brought a tear to *my* eye. You're one of the good ones, Dave.
Absolutely.
ScottyZ
That Annie Duke stuff is ALL OVER RGP, etc... You more than witnessed it first-hand, and we're getting the info. here. This rocks, really hard.
I love the William Hung shirt. I almost bought one myself.
Can't believe that quad aces hand. You made a lot of good hands, but stayed creative when you didn't have the cards, in order to keep building, and building, and building.
Your latest post is your best one yet, IMHO. Today's a big day. Good luck.
Regards,
all_aces
stp
Well, I'm sure that if you heard her comments to Gus, then she *meant* for you to hear them. Nothing wrong with needling her in return.
Extremely well said.
It's easy to forget that we're all human beings out there.
ScottyZ
Wow I cannot agree with you anymore Dave. What a ***** for running over to Gus and telling him about it. And don't feel bad about what you said after, it was so perfect and she deserved it. You didn't let her push you around and in fact you pushed her around like she was an amature. Good luck today to both you and Ralph!!
well said Mr.Scharf
Yeah, I may have been pissed with Annie's comment, and man that line you said with the semi bluff, VERY NICE!
Best of luck today Dave (our Hero!)
(Tuesday, 25 May 2004 at 9:04 am)
Dave Scharf is here in the media room...
'I have 189,700 and I made a horrible play at Annie Duke on a drawing dead bluff....then one hour later... I defended the blind with Q 8 of spades after she made it 4,500... flop is As, Js, 8c... I check...she bets 4,000....I raise to 16,000.... she reraises me another 37,000... I go all in..she has in front of her 25,000 and the pot is 110,000.....she lays down after a long time in the tank....because I was pissed offff....all I said was go tell that to Gus too....I showed her the hand....I had a pair of eights!!!
I had 150,000 heading into that hand...
One more time... Go Dave Go!!!
Now go give them all HELL with your play.
PS,
leave the Annie question to ponder until after the $5M is in the bank. She's gone. You can evicerate her in your next book. (How I won the WSOP 2004)
PPS,
I will be bringing your book to the next local (3rd wed) tourney in June. I want it autographed by a 2004 WSOP finalist.
Will try to post updates as often as possible as my job is now to sweat Dave. VERY EXCITING!!!!
Ralph.
Great advice.
In fact, I think Dave has already successfully accomplished this in some form.
It's pretty clear to me that she was trying to get into his head in making those comments to Gus while he was in earshot. Dave didn't let that happen. Extremely well done.
Dave has shown us what what it means to be a real professional. Poker or otherwise.
I hope this doesn't sound like I'm some kind of suck-up, but I'll still say it anyway and risk giving that impression because it's true. You are now my favorite poker player. By a longshot.
ScottyZ
Finding info on specifically Dave is hard because the sites are mostly posting about 'pros'. Any info. you can share about Dave's progress is appreciated.
Regards,
all_aces
Keep givin it baby!