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I recently flew to Los Angeles for the World Poker Tour Invitational, which I was fortunate enough to be asked to compete in this time ’round. Being held near Hollywood, it always attracts the most interesting field of the year...
I recently flew to Los Angeles for the World Poker Tour Invitational, which I was fortunate enough to be asked to compete in this time ’round. Being held near Hollywood, it always attracts the most interesting field of the year. Besides big-name California (and Vegas) pros like Scotty Nguyen, John Phan, David Pham, Layne Flack, Phil and Antonio, and many more, it also draws the cream of the Hollywood poker crop. Shannon Elizabeth, Ray Romano, Brad Garrett, Jennifer Tilly and a host of Tinseltown producer types who have taken up the game competed and took the event very seriously. Robert Mizrachi, Jimmy Fricke and Amnon Filippi were three of the pros who passed through my table on their way to busting out. I remember one hand I played with Amnon where I took a big pot with A-Q to his A-7 on a board of A-9-4-A-K. Had I had the A-7, I probably wouldn’t be mentioning it. Later the first day, I was able to convince former baseball star and steroid scandal figure Jose Canseco I held a king on a board with two kings on it, and stole a nice pot. As the evening wore on, he opened for 10,000 preflop and I went all-in over the top for a little over 10,000 more with pocket aces, figuring that getting 3-1 he almost has to call. I forgot that Jose seemed to always fear the worst, and this time he was right. “Do you have pocket aces!?” he said with frustration, and eventually mucked his hand. I should have shown my rockets and said “good read,” but instead I just mucked silently, something I will regret later. Canseco turned out to be a decent guy and no fool at the poker table. Toward the end of Day 1 he started saying how he was not coming back for Day 2 with a “puny stack.” He gets it all-in and doubles up, then right before play halted at 1.30am he persuades an Internet player, Peter Neff, to call his all-in so he doesn’t have to “come back tomorrow.” Neff calls him with A-8, Jose tables A-J, and suddenly Canseco has a very nice stack for Day 2. A lot bigger than mine, as it turned out. Somehow I made it to Day 2 without ever flopping a set or two pair or a great draw and never making a hand higher than the three aces I had against Amnon. Despite the lack of good starting hands, I was thoroughly enjoying myself, and after a good night’s sleep (the L.A. freeway was a potent lullaby), I spent the morning on the phone to friends where my stone-cold bluff of Jose was mentioned prominently. Big mistake. Apparently pride really does go before the fall because as a short stack I have to get my 22k all-in quickly on Day 2. With blinds at 2000-4000 and a 500 ante, I open-shove in early position with two red sevens (a hand which never loses, by the way!) and everyone quickly folds…except Jose, who is in the big blind. He hems and haws but finally calls with A-8 offsuit. It costs him about a quarter of his stack and after shaking hands all around as I’m walking away I wonder if I had been nicer to him the day before if he would have just let me take the pot. After decades of play I am convinced that being nice at the poker table is a positive EV play. There are 100 players left, and while minutes before I was an adrenaline-pumped contender competing against the world’s best, now I’m nothing more than one of 300+ players who have busted out. I feel as anonymous as one of the million cars on the 710 freeway outside Commerce Casino. I’m surrounded by 300 poker tables, yet feel strangely alone, and I realize that if one is ever to seriously hit the tournament trail, a strong support group is a necessity. You can’t do it by yourself. In tournament poker, you think long term and evaluate yourself after many events, but that’s no consolation. It’s early on a Sunday, and I’m a stranger here. Heading for the door, I walk by tables with every game and limit imaginable, but they hold no allure now. I push open the door, hear the freeway, but then, turning, I look back over my shoulder, and, hey, I’m pretty sure of it – there is Johnny Chan playing a cash game. John ‘Johnny Quads’ Wenzel Editor-in-Chief
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