Playing In Aruba (Part 1)

First a bit of background. My interest in poker started when, coming home late from the boozer one night, I turned on the TV and saw one of the tournaments in Series Two of the World Poker Tour being played out. From memory I think Gus Hansen won but I didn’t have a clue who he was back then. From that point on I was glued and wanted to learn more about the game, and would always tune into any televised poker I could.

But it wasn’t until 2004 that I started playing the game properly. Like a lot of novice players I read a couple of books by David Sklansky and, of course, the Holdem chapter in Doyle Brunson’s poker ‘bible’, Super/System 2.

Poker boom

In that year I also got involved with the launch of a new gambling magazine called InsideEdge which coincided with the start of poker’s boom. This was just a year after Chris Moneymaker won the World Series and all from a $30 satellite on PokerStars. Everyone wanted to do a Moneymaker and win the Big One after that.

As editor of InsideEdge I got to meet some of the most famous poker players the world has ever seen and I got to travel the world interviewing the likes of Chris Ferguson, Phil Hellmuth, Erik Lindgren, Greg Raymer, the Devilfish and the Godfather of Poker himself - Doyle Brunson.

Not a bad life. The PartyPoker.com Million on board the 85,000 ton ms Oosterdam sailing down the coast of Mexico one month, Vegas the next and Aruba in the Caribbean shortly afterwards. Wherever poker royalty went we followed.

I even got to play in a few tournaments myself which is the subject of this blog. I flew to Aruba, a tiny island just 20 miles off the coast of Venezuela, to interview a host of players who would be playing in the 4th Annual UltimateBet.com Poker Classic.

UltimateBet asked me if I wanted to play. How could I turn them down? As there were around 650 players there were three ‘flights’ and I was scheduled to play in the first of these on Monday.

Meeting Jesus, The Mouth and The Brat

In the bar on the night before the tournament started I had already spotted Chris Ferguson, Mike ‘The Mouth’ Matusow, Devilfish, Phil Hellmuth, Annie Duke, Scotty Nguyen, Barry Greenstein and a load of others so I knew it was going to be tough.

Midday came and the 220 or so players, most of which were online qualifiers from UltimateBet.com, went to the tournament hall in the Radisson. With our starting stacks of 10,000 chips in front of us it wasn’t long before famous tournament director Jack McClelland, of Bellagio fame, announced the words, “Shuffle up and deal.”

Two hands in and I’m dealt K-Q off-suit. A guy in early position raises three times the big blind (150) and I call. Remember this is the first hand I’ve played in my first WPT so I was kind of nervous.

There are two other callers in the blinds. Then, a piece of magic from the dealer. My new best friend. The dealer of all dealers. I want to kiss the guy but that would be a tell, I guess.

He deals 9-10-J with two spades.

Wow! Two hands in and I’ve flopped the nut straight. Can it get any better than this?

The guys in the blinds check, the early position raiser bets 500. Great. I’ve got the nuts and there’s a player betting in to me. Not wanting to scare him off and thinking it’s unlikely he would be risking valuable chips with a semi-bluff this early in the tournament I flat call. The players in the blinds both fold.

Getting aggressive

The turn come a non-spade rag. Even better. My opponent bets a whopping 1,000 chips or 10% of his stack. Now’s the time to get aggressive. I re-raise him and put 2,500 of my chips in the middle (25% of my stack). He thinks for about two seconds and then calls. Blimey! Surely he’s got K-Q too.

The river was another rag but this time it was a spade. He checks. Thinking there was a slim chance he might have the flush and is looking to put me all-in if I bet, I check too. He flips over 9-9 for trip 9s. I turn over my K-Q for the straight and he looks devastated as I take down the 6,000 pot to give me 16,000 chips in total.

So I’m chip leader of the whole damn tournament after two hands. What a dream start to my WPT career.

For the next few hours I was card dead. I get Cowboys in early position but my raise gets no callers. I manage to keep at around the 15,000 level for three hours by taking down a few small pots from late position.

At the dinner break I was down to about 12,000 which by this time was below average. Not where I want to be.

At about 11.30pm we’ve been playing for nearly 12 hours. I’m knackered. I’m jet-lagged and can barely keep my eyes open. With just half an hour left to play I look down at A-K. I bet in early position and no-one calls. Next hand I look down and I’ve got A-K again. I bet and once again no-one calls so I get the blinds and the antes which by this stage are worth having.

I love my A-10

The hand after that I’m dealt A-10 so I bet three times the big blind again. This time a player in late position re-raises me. I know it’s not in the book but I decide to call his re-raise.

Lucky I did because with no other callers the dealer deals out A-9-10. That’s nice. I like that. Top two pair. Hey hey!

I check to the re-raiser who then shoves 5,000 chips into the pot. What’s he got? My reckoning is A-K, A-Q or A-J. I’m hoping not the American Airlines. Should I make my move? If he had the Aces he would slow play them, wouldn’t he?

I decide it’s all or nothing, announce “all-in” and push my entire stack of approximately 18,000 chips into the middle.

After five seconds I know he hasn’t got Aces since that would have provoked a call a nano-second later.

The angst yank

For a full three minutes my American friend is metaphorically tearing his hair out.

“Oh God,” he says.

“Have you got me beat? I know you’ve got me beat. Am I pot-committed? I’m pot-committed. Look how many chips there are in there. Can I lay down this hand? I can’t lay down my hand. Oh God,” he continues. I think about telling him to stop whining.

I then get the stare down. My new WPT cap is now firmly pulled down over my eyes. He can see my mouth but nothing more. But frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn. In fact, call me. I want a call. I want your action, boyo!

The dealer calls the clock on him and he is forced to make a decision. He calls and flips over A-Q off-suit. He’s behind as he knew he was.

My opponent starts yelling for one of the remaining two Queens or ‘bitches’ as he called them. The turn came a Jack giving him a few more outs but when the dealer laid out an inconsequential five on the river I knew the pot was mine

I hauled in roughly 40,000 chips giving me double the chips of anyone else on the table and a great chance of cashing in my first WPT. With only three hands to go until play ended I was exhausted but happy with my performance. I had lived to fight another day. Find out what happened in Part 2 of the blog.

5 August 2006

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