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A month in poker, Vegas and random thoughts.

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Bigfella42:
So the World Series starts today and if you love poker it really is the place to be. I"ve been over for part of the series for a few years now, and the atmosphere is unique. I just read that last year there were players from 101 different countries so it is a true international event.

Poker is not a great spectator sport (neither is football if tonights game is anything to go by) but I did get drawn into a mammoth rail session a few years ago. It started about 5 in the afternoon when I was wandering around the IP having a beer and playing some table games. I decided to do a quick internet check to see what was going on up the road at the Rio, and noticed that James Dempsey was chip leader in the £10k limit omaha hi lo event with just 3 tables left. With nothing better to do, I jumped on the shuttle up to the Rio to follow the action.

They had a mobile beer unit just outside the Amazon Room, so I ordered a beer and headed into the Arena. By this time the hi/lo event was down to 2 tables and James was still in a good position. A few players got eliminated and I wandered in and out of the room with the occassional trip into the casino during quieter moments.

I reckon it must have been about 9pm when the final table was reached. At this point the players head to a mini auditorium with the table in the middle and seating all around. As well as James, the final table also included Sammy Farha, the cool looking guy from the TV cash games and WSOP main event runner up to Moneymaker.

News of "the Brit" making the final table spread around Vegas quickly, and before long the now infamous British gathering took over the arena. As time moved into the early hours the field was slowly reducing, and the cocktail waitresses were kept super busy with the purchase of a round of 40 budweisers and 40 yagerbombs being subject of prop bets on whether the flop was mainly red or mainly black cards! Of course, it would have been rude not to partake so I grabbed a bottle at every opportunity.

The time was probably about 3am when it got to what always appeared to be the inevitable heads up - Dempsey v Farha. James had already won a bracelet that year, and he was now close to his second. Sammy considers Omaha his best game and was going to be a tough opponent.

I thought Sammy handled the banter well. The British sense of humour is unique and the chants of "Sammy, Sammy give us a wave" were met with a confused smile. The heads up was an epic battle. It went on for ages with two players at the top of their game. Eventually the blinds became so large that any hand which was scooped on the river and bet all the way was going to determine it. The deciding hand saw two queens on the board by the turn. Dempsey had a queen and it turned out (I think from my memory) Farha was holding AAKK. An ace fell on the river and it was as good as over - Sammy was the winner and James a valiant second.

It was now 5.30am. I was a little drunk and very tired. But it was a great experience and it"s what the WSOP is all about. After hours of cheering and joining in the banter, it was all over. There"s really nothing you can say when someone got so close to winning only to be denied at the final step. I slipped off to the taxi rank and headed for my bed.

I hope there will be similar experiences this year. I can"t think of many times when I"d rail a poker tournament for 12 hours, but Vegas is unique and for two weeks every year I enjoy every minute. Just two weeks to go now.....

fandango:
Great read Glen.. Once the children have flown the nest, this is something on my bucket list.. Already lucky to experience the WSOP it is indeed infectious! and a must for any serious poker fan.

My experience was early on in my poker and didn"t merit the true scale of what goes on prior to ME.. As Moorman quotes "shoe bombs" FTW.. The uk rails are pretty amazing!!

Bigfella42:
So last weekend was Wembley for the Apat Masters and what a great weekend it was. It all started on the Friday night with a few beers with Curly, Delboy, Joe, Sue and Phil (no, not Phil TC, the other Phil). I really enjoyed this night as we spent it sat outside a lovely pub/hotel enjoying a rare warm summers evening, talking about all things including poker and drinking excellent beer (they served London Pride, from the Fullers brewery I just love that stuff).

The night did not go completely without a hitch though, as apparently I don"t say the name of certain hotels in the accepted form. My efforts to sat "Harrahs" and the "Aria" were clearly epic fails although personally I think I"ve got it right  :D

Saturday morning and the Apat bus arrived to collect myself, Joe and Gareth (welcome to Apat Gareth, hope to see you at many more) from the five star Ibis Hotel situated in Beaconsfield Service Station. With a few more stops along the way, we soon arrived at the famous stadium. As usual, top marks and big thanks to Curly for his organising of the transport, it was a great idea.

You"ve probably read enough about the venue, so I won"t go on about it. All I will say is that they did a great job of setting up the pods on the pitch and I"m pleased I experienced this. The poker was a chance to get back into live play as it had been a while.

After a steady and very tight start I had a pivotal hand. Not sure if I like how I played it or not. I min raised early position with  Ah 6h and after two callers the big blind bumped it up. To be honest I can"t remember the blinds or the raise size, it was about level 4 or 5 though. I called, something I hadn"t been doing up to this point but I wanted to see a flop (they"re suited after all  ;D). The opponent wasn"t tricky so it was fair to assume he had a real hand. Flop  4c 5h 7c. I check and he bets about three quarter pot. I knew this flop couldn"t have helped him, but thought he could be worried that it helped me as I"d probably play a middle pair the same way. Anyway, I heard someone say "raise" and realised it was me, so I proceeded to 2.5X his bet and look as confident as I could. He looked pained, which was good, but then pushed his stack in which was not so good. At this point I was getting over 4:1 to call so it was my time to look pained and I had to show my hand. He tabled two black kings. A  3c on the turn gave me the straight though and I took the pot and eliminated the opponent.

Would be interested in views on this hand, althogh it"s a bit difficult without stack sizes etc. i do know there were chunks in the middle by the end though! I think my thought of representing a set was a bit optimistic, as on that board I think most people would lead out with a set. I was 40% against his hand, but he folds AK and AQ there so if he has those hands more than 10% of the time I guess it"s a positive play?

I ended day 1 in second place and returned the following day full of confidence. Unfortunately it wasn"t to be. I had to lay down some hands early on, was getting a bit short stacked when down to the last 15 or so and lost a flip against Phil (yes, Phil TC this time) when his pocket 9"s held v my AQ. Then with a very short stack I picked up  A s Ah last hand before the break, the first time I had seen them all weekend, shoved em in, got called by  10s 10c and all was fine until a ten on the turn saw me out.

Pleased enough with the way I played and just over a week now to Vegas. I expect Wembley was a one off, but was well worth it, and at £25 for a burger and chips (I kid you not) and "Guinness" served from a tin it did wonders for my diet.

Thank you APAT for a great weekend. I love the community feel of the APAT events and as usual the game was played in excellent spirit.  

s4ooter:
The big Question is

What did you have vs Dave Howard early on Day 2 in a big hand you folded turn on?

Bigfella42:
haha that would be telling. But I was ahead pre flop, I"m pretty convinced of that. May have laid down the best hand but I couldn"t put my stack in with an underpair to the board (oops, might have given it away there :)

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