(This week I’m still reminiscing back to 2006, where I played my solitary WSOP main event)
So Day 1a at my first and only WSOP to date was a mixed bag. I survived, which was the objective I suppose, but only just. And I was disgusted with the way I played the last two hours. No one said it was going to be easy but there was no need to go and handicap myself by getting slaughtered.
At least I was about to get a few days rest for my troubles. Not so my mate Mike, who was playing the very next day (more on Mike later). I can’t remember how many days rest I got exactly but however many it was we did no resting. All I did the entire 17 days was drink so much I got alcohol poisoning. Well I think I did: I didn’t seek medical advice but this was worse than any hangover I’d ever had.
In an attempt to recover I drank water for 36 hours because I was too sick to eat and we went to the Stratosphere hotel to go on the highest rollercoaster in the world. This piece of rollercoaster track just heads off the roof of the building 1000 feet up and the car stops dead after hurtling down, leaving you hanging over the precipice. It is ridiculously scary and in my sickened state it brought on a feeling of terror so severe I remember thinking that you could kill old people or those of nervous disposition by putting them on here. It wasn’t at all funny.
Anyway, I digress. Getting back to my tournament and day 2a, I basically showed up with only one move open to me: all in. I had 4450 chips and the blinds were 250-500 with a 100 ante so I needed to pick a hand to go all in with as soon as possible. I managed to get 44 in the small blind and shove it all in when they all kindly folded to me (the BB folded thankfully).
But then I picked up AA.
What a result! In the big blind there was a guy with about 40k in chips, who a short time before had raised preflop and whose opponent had moved all in. He had called with AJs. It was a terrible call really – he had the guy covered but he was going to be badly hurt if he lost and it was hard to see him being a favourite to win the showdown. Anyway the other guy had AA and there was a Jack on the flop and another Jack on the river! The chap with AA looked absolutely sick as he stood up and left. Poor bloke.
I decided I would just move all in here with my aces. Small raises with an already tiny stack look suspiciously strong and I think people are sometimes more prone to call the bigger bet. So I shoved all in and hoped for a caller.
The big blind – AJ man from before announced “call”.
Fantastic!!
My brother (who had been eliminated late on day 1a) was watching from the rail and I grinned at him as they were counting out the chips from the other guy’s stack. I wanted to show him the cards but he’d get to see them soon enough. AJ man could have a lot here: any pair, AK, AQ or of course AJ. He could have even worse because my all in
was a lot smaller than the previous bloke’s.
He showed his cards: AA
XX^^*&^%$£$$%%%%$$ HELL !!! X*&CKS
Of all the rotten luck. This donkey could have had about 20 different hands here and he flipped over AA.
It could have been worse I suppose. I could have lost the hand. The dealer reminded me that he’d shaded off someone in the past in this specific situation but I wasn’t really listening. I wasn’t even watching to be honest and I didn’t see what cards fell. He pushed half the pot to me and we carried on. Sick luck.
My demise came quickly afterwards. I lobbed it all in with K9o and got called with 1010. I really thought I was going to luck out and spike a king but I never did and that was that.
So that was me done and dusted for 2006. But I vowed to return and one thing’s for sure: if I ever do play another WSOP main event I’ll be turning up properly rested and I won’t be drinking anything except water.
Of course the tournament was only one part of our 17 day Las Vegas trip and there is plenty more to tell. They say “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” but I think I can dig out one or two anecdotes from that trip for you…
(to be continued)
