World Poker Tour Regional Tournaments

The Parx Casino recently hosted a World Poker Tour regional series of tournaments for which I anticipated playing only in the three day main event (which featured two first days). Players had the option of playing their first day on Sunday or Monday – or both if they got knocked out on Sunday. The tournament would then continue on Tuesday by combining the survivors of the Day1A with those of Day 1B. It would then end on Wednesday. The Friday before this event I was at the Parx playing 2-5 no-limit hold ‘em when a friend approached and suggested I play in a preliminary tournament which had started earlier that morning and for which late signup was permitted. It was a $500 + 50 tournament with a prize pool guarantee of $50,000 and there was a big overlay meaning that the break-even point for the casino was 100 players (500 x 100) but there were only about 46 players signed up. This translates to an edge for the player because he would have 1 chance in 46 to win but would be getting paid roughly double. Any decent poker player knows that if the odds are in your favor you play the hand – or in this case the tournament. My problem was that I thought the tournament was scheduled for two days and we had theatre tickets for Saturday. But my friend assured me that it was a one day tournament and so I quickly cashed out my chips and signed up. Having second thoughts (a little too late of course) as I approached the tournament area I asked one of the supervisors whether it was indeed a one day tournament to which he replied that it had been scheduled for two days but with 40-something players it would surely be finished the same day. What neither of us anticipated was the late rush as other players learned of the overlay and before I knew it there were 89 players, insuring that the tournament would last two days. Okay well maybe I would be lucky and get knocked out the first day and not have to figure out how to tell my wife that I could not go to the theatre. But alas this was not to be. At the end of the first day I was second in chips and we were down to the final two tables. I had to face the music. To her credit my wife’s response was simply “if you win a lot of money then we can replace the tickets.” As an offer of compromise I told her that I would forego playing in the main event since it wouldn’t be fair to play poker for 5 days out of 6. With that issue off my mind I returned the following day determined to cover the cost of the theatre tickets and stay out of the doghouse. If you’ve ever played in tournaments such as these you know the feeling as you glance at the monitor and watch the number of players dwindle. 89 becomes 79 becomes 65 becomes 42 becomes 34. In this case I watched as 14 became 13 became 12 and so forth. I mucked when I could, played when I had to and the field continued to dwindle. As we arrived at the final table one point had been made perfectly clear to me. The young hotshot (former) internet players played in only one speed – hyperfast. The overwhelming chip leader was one such young gun as was the player who was second in chips. Since each knockout represented a higher cash payout to the remaining players I decided to inhabit the sidelines for as long as possible. The girl sitting to my right was obviously using the same strategy, laying down hand after hand as the two chip leaders gambled against the rest of the table and continually won. Then the player who was second in chips took a huge hit as he unwisely challenged the chip leader, sending him to the middle of the pack. And then there were five. Choosing my spots carefully I had actually moved Into second chip position after looking down at pocket 10s and felting a shortstack shove. But as the winds of war changed direction, by the time we reached four players I was the short stack having lost with AK on a board of K8876, keeping my tournament hopes alive by laying my hand down to the girl on my right when she shoved on the river. With only 400k in chips to a chip average of over 700k I resumed my “stay out of the way strategy” and it paid off handsomely when the two young guns squared off in a 2.5 million chip all-in, one felting the other. And then there were three. The internet kid was the chip leader with about 1.3 million, the girl had about 1 million and I had 400k. We played on and while I remained at about the same level the girl slowly took over the chip lead. And then it happened. With the blinds at 20k-40k the internet kid raised to 140k and the girl instantly shoved her chips to the center. I mucked just as quickly and without hesitation the internet kid shouted “I call,” turning up King-Queen offsuit. KING-QUEEN OFFSUIT!!! He called an additional 800k with king-queen offsuit to the tightest player in the game and as she turned up Ace-King my heart skipped a beat. AND THEN THERE WERE TWO! We battled for three solid hours and at one point she was a 3-1 chip leader. Finally, short-stacked I shoved with Q-J offsuit and she instacalled with A-10. When the flop came A-7-7 I stood, extended my hand and said great game. But before we could shake hands the craaaaazy world of poker reared it’s ugly (or beautiful) head and the turn came a king and the river a ten and I was aliiiiiive and with chips. She never recovered and I won a World Poker Tour tournament that I wasn’t even supposed to play in. My wife and I celebrated on Sunday by having dinner at our favorite restaurant – Don Pepe’s in Newark. I had removed all thought of playing in the main event from my mind and we were overloading on sangria and maybe it was the very sangria overload that caused it but suddenly out of nowhere my wife blurted “aren’t there two first days for the main event?” I nodded and she continued “Why don’t you play tomorrow? You’re in a zone.” This was so unlike her that I thought I had better lock up the seat before she changed her mind. “You’re right,” I quickly replied. “I should play while I’m doing well.” And I did. The World Poker Tour main event featured a $1600 buy-in and a $200,000 guaranteed prize pool. Many of the top area (and out of area) pros signed up for the Sunday “first day” (Day 1A) of this reentry tournament and as my wife and I ate dinner they knocked each other out at an astonishing pace. At the end of Day 1A only 29 players remained from a field of 98. I arrived early Monday morning at the Parx and sat down at a 2-5 no limit table to relax before the grind. I know it doesn’t make a lot of sense to people that someone would play poker to relax before a poker tournament but it makes sense to me and that’s all that matters. As the tournament began I noticed that I was listed on the Parx blog among the notables in the field along with Miami John Cernuto, Matt Glantz, Brian Lemke, Little Man Sica and Joe Black. Notables who survived the first day included Paul Darden, Charley Hook, Paul Volpe and Joe Wertz. And then there were those who weren’t even listed on the notable list yet who were even more notable than many of the notables. Lee Childs and Ryan D’Angelo for example, both of whom are nearing the 2 million dollar mark in live tournaments. I was excited just to be listed among the group, not that I didn’t think I was as good as any of them (poker players including myself always think they are much better than they really are) but as a cash game player I did not have a tournament history that would match up to most of them. I played my usual game of avoiding play against big stacks and it was small-time give and take for me until after the dinner break. My buddy Frankie Fed (we play in the same home game and I eat at his restaurant - “Frankie Fed’s” believe it or not) had been moved to my table and he had a pretty big stack. Frankie is a shoot from the hip gambler and while in the long run that can be a good thing for a solid player, Frankie could swing for the fences and knock anyone out of a tournament. I looked down at pocket 6s and raised, called by the button and by Frankie in the big blind. I smiled inside (and hopefully not outside) as the rainbow flop came J-6-2. Frankie checked and I made a pot sized bet hoping that someone had a jack. The button folded and I bit my lip to contain my excitement as Frankie donned his shades, a huge tell that I was aware of whenever he had a strong hand. After pushing a bunch of chips around he raised an amount which my experience with him led me to believe he wanted a call. I did not fear pocket jacks because Frankie would surely have reraised preflop. His range of hands to me was A-J to J-6 or J-2 or 6-2 suited. So I flat called. The turn was a 7 and Frankie bet out significantly. Again I flat called. Having played against him for years I knew that no matter what fell he was normally a three street bettor once that train started rolling. A 10 fell on the river and to my amazement Frankie checked. I could not play the hand any slower and it was time to push the rest of my chips into the pot. Frankie lowered his shades and stared at me. “I can’t lay this hand down Marvelous.” (yes he calls me Marvelous). “I have a set.” And in went the chips and over turned the pocket deuces and thank you Frankie!!! And Day1B ended and the chip leader for the day had 333,300 and I had 78,000 but I had a seat for Day 2 and that’s all that really mattered. When Day 2 arrived I found myself at a table with Paul Darden, Charlie Hook. Jason Paster and Paul Volpe among others. The table was rock solid, and since I was card dead for the first 2 hours it looked like an early Day 2 exit for me. And then I heard the words “who is the next big blind here?” It was me and to my utter joy that meant I was moving to another table and hopefully new life. My new table included Lee Childs and tournament chip leader Brian Lemke who had now amassed more than a half million chips. But the cards started falling better and my stack began to slowly grow. And as it grew others did not fare as well. Charley Hook and Jason Paster who remained at my old table were knocked out as were other notables including Matt Glantz. Shrinkage was taking place and tables were breaking and by dinner break there were 29 players left. After the dinner break I found myself at about 100k in chips, less than half the chip average for the remaining players. I continued my strategy of mucking when I could and playing when I had to but as more players dropped to the rail I found myself in a similar position to one I was in at the main event last year when I scratched and clawed and finished 20th in a tournament of 18 payouts. DE JA VU!!!! 19 players left in a tournament of 18 payouts and with 46k I was the short stack. I waited patiently for a spot at which to shove and when I looked down at K-10 of diamonds in the cutoff I knew that my time had come. Everyone mucked around to me and I pushed the anemic stack forward. The button was also fairly shortstacked and it looked as if his muck was reluctant. And then it was up to the small blind, who with 70k in chips was also extremely shortstacked. He fingered his chips as I prayed silently to the poker gods for him to muck. While waiting I glanced at Paul Volpe who was in the big blind. Paul is a very successful and aggressive young player who had essentially been controlling the pace of the table to that point. We locked eyes and he shook his head as if to tell me that I had chosen a bad time to shove. Clearly Paul had a big hand. The small blind continued to fidget and then counted out 46k and pushed the stack forward, leaving himself with a little over 20k, and the play was now Paul’s who announced that he was all-in, forcing the small blind to make a decision, and causing him to call for the floor. Pointing to my stack he asked “If we are both knocked out who finishes 18th (in the money)?” I already knew the answer which was confirmed when the floor supervisor stated that whoever started the hand with more chips would finish 18th. Satisfied with that response the small blind compounded his alread huge tactical error of calling in the first place, with a call to the all-in. Paul turned up pocket 9s which was somewhat of a relief to me since I had two overs and was in a race with him and incredibly the small blind turned up J-10 suited a terrible hand to play in this situation. When a king hit the flop and no help came to anyone else I tripled up, the small blind was knocked out of the tournament and the celebrations began as everyone who remained was in the money. Despite the fact that I was still shortstacked I decided to let the other shortstacks start a shove-fest and play rope-a-dope so that I might try to move up the payout ladder. And it worked as the remaining players began to fall by the wayside. Volpe finished 14th, “Miami” John Cernuto finished 13th and suddenly play was halted as we had reached the final table of 10 players. By chip count I was in 6th place and since it was 2 AM they were sending us home for the evening to rest and start fresh the following afternoon. I did not get much sleep that night but then again I don’t sleep much anyway. At 2 PM the following afternoon I took a good look at the final table. To my left was Lee Childs who finished 4th in the 2007 World Series of Poker and whose lifetime winnings exceeded 1.6 million. To my right was Ryan D’Angelo whose lifetime winnings were approximately 2 million. Brian Lemke, lifetime winnings 1.1 million was a few seats to my left and there wasn’t a slouch in the rest of the crew either. Since I rarely play tournaments I could not compete statistically with these guys. But I knew that I could compete poker-wise. The tournament supervisor ordered the “shuffle up and deal,” and the ten of us were on our way. And then there were 9. And I played a game which I knew was giving me a tight-weak table image but that was fine. I felt that when I wanted to make a move I could do so with impunity although in the meantime my tight play was draining my stack through blind attrition. Finally being near the bottom in chip counts and being card dead for a couple of hours I knew I had to make a move. Joe Wertz was the button and min-raised my big blind. The small blind mucked and I looked down to see K-3 of diamonds. I called the min-raise made by the very aggressive Wertz and the flop came J-4-4, all black. I checked the flop and Wertz made a pot-sized bet of 125,000. I had about a half-million in chips and knew that it was unlikely Wertz had an overpair or for that matter any hand worth calling an all-in and so I made the move. To my utter shock he shook his head and said “Wow I guess I have no choice,” calling my bluff and turning over J-5. Frankly I think this was a terrible call against a player with my image. What was he beating except air and I seemed like the type of player who would NEVER bluff with all his chips on the line. In fact when I turned up my hand I could hear a shocked D’Angelo whisper “wow he has cojones.” Now it’s nice to be thought of as a guy who has cojones but I’d rather be thought of as the guy who didn’t bust out on a bluff. When a miracle king hit the turn I got my wish and a stack that may have made me the chip leader. And on we played. When shortstack Lemke shoved and everyone mucked around to me, I reshoved with pocket aces and picked up his stack and before I knew it then there were three, Wertz, Childs and me. Witihin minutes shortstack Childs shoved and I instacalled with A-8 suited. He turned up pocket 4s and an ace on the river sent him to the rail. AND THEN THERE WERE TWO! Unlike the earlier tournament in which my heads-up match lasted three solid hours, this one moved very quickly. It started with Wertz having a 3-1 chip advantage over me and I was now swining for the fences. About twenty minutes into the match I called his 125K raise with K-9 of hearts. The flop came A-3-10 with two hearts giving me the nut flush draw. I checked the flop and Wertz fired out a bet of 150K. I raised to 400K and he quickly called. At that point I did not believe that he had an ace because his style would have been to re-raise me with any ace. For this reason I put him most likely on a pocket pair or a 10 although I did hope he was on a flush draw because if it hit then I would surely double-up. When a king hit the turn I felt very strongly that I now had the best hand as well as the redraw to the nuts and I went all-in for about 1.2 million chips. Just as quickly as on the last street Wertz called and his comment made me think that I was ahead for sure. “I call, do you have an ace?” I confidently turned up my hand and winced as I saw his – K-Q! He called my raise with a gutshot and my huge all-in with second pair (and unfortunately a better kicker than me). When a brick hit the river Wertz scooped up first place money and the trophy. I thought that for the second time he had made a bad call but I could not complain because if it weren’t for his first call I would never have doubled up. I was elated at having done so well in the tournament and for the week. The next World Poker Tour event at the Parx is scheduled for August with the final table televised. Some of the players in my home game have been on televised World Poker Tour final tables and I’d like to do it as well. Those are usually the times when a bad beat sends you to the rail by level 4. Oh well, we’ll see.