Tag: satellite tournament

The Man Who Met Norman Chad

Have I mentioned I enjoy playing poker? I continue playing online almost every night and my deposit of three years ago is still there.

For poker players, our ‘world series’ is the World Series of Poker. Conveniently named, isn’t it?

The WSOP is the biggest tournament in the world. Actually, it’s a series of tournaments, culminating in the ‘Main Event.’

Anyone can enter. All you need is a $10,000 ticket. This year, a $10,000 ticket turned into $12,000,000 for Jamie Gold of California.

I’ve never been to the World Series. C’mon – $10,000 is a lot of money and you’re playing against all the best (and some of the luckiest) players around.

My friend Rick played this year. He won his $10,000 entry playing in a satellite tournament. It cost him $1!

Though Rick had a great time, he came home with little more than memories and some tchotchkes for me. One of them is pictured on the left. It’s an autograph from Norman Chad.

OK – it’s on a piece of paper ripped out of a spiral notepad. Can’t it still be a cherished memento?

Chad is a newspaper columnist. He’s also written books and for TV, including a pretty funny episode of Arli$$. Mostly, I know him as the color commentator on the World Series broadcasts.

Rick has had the autograph for months. Tonight was finally time to pick it up.

I don’t have many friends I can visit at midnight besides Rick. He is a professional announcer and sets his own schedule. His business is primarily carried on from a studio in his basement.

If you’re in Connecticut, you’ve heard Rick say “99-1, WPLR” or voice commercials for Bob’s Stores (the clothing, not the furniture stores). If you’re elsewhere, you’ve heard him too, on commercials and promos too numerous count.

He has one of those voices that is just too darned deep. It is accented by gravely side tones which make it mellifluous and friendly.

My voice is so lacking in bass, a program director I worked for in Philadelphia considered using a ‘Harmonizer’ to electronically lower the pitch! I will be eternally envious of Rick’s pipes.

There was actually more waiting for me than the autograph (though that will be my most cherished piece of swag). Rick also gave me a deck of WSOP playing cards, a WSOP chip, PokerStars.net t-shirt, and the ‘souvenir’ room key from his Vegas hotel.

We were down in his studio talking when I noticed the full wall of record albums. These were real 33 1/3 rpm vinyl disks. They’re the kind that scratched, popped and hissed when you played them. Looking at the collection was like going back in time.

I started pulling albums off the wall and, on two vintage Technics turntables, Rick began playing cuts. There was early Hendrix and Janis Joplin. I read the technical notes on the cover of the Beach Boys seminal Holland LP. There were more obscure groups like The Buoys&#185 and The Easybeats.

Some cuts, like Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream, I hadn’t heard in 40 years or so! I remembered conversations with friends in the 60s, trying to figure out why Dylan starting the song acoustically, stopped to laugh, and then began again, this time with electric guitar and electrified accompaniment.

Our musical tastes are very different. Rick has a more eclectic, more discerning ear for artistry. I gravitate to pop and ‘the hits.’ Still, there was a lot to share and, as former disk jockeys, stories to tell.

I got home around 3:00 AM, carrying my loot with me.

Forget my WSOP take. I can’t begin to tell you how much fun I had just schmoozing and listening to those old songs.

&#185 – The Buoys hit “Timothy” is probably the best top-40 song about cannibalism ever!

No World Series For Me

Earlier, I won a Pokerstars satellite tournament and qualified for today’s immense online tournament. The payoff – entries to the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. Final value – $11,000 per package and 150 packages were guaranteed.

When things got going at 4:30 PM, 7377 players were registered. That gave the tournament an actual cash value of $2,581,950! Since Pokerstars was collecting $20 per entrant, it also meant they were earning around $150,000 for running the tournament.

This might have been the largest single event ever played on line. If not, it was close. The numbers are mind numbing.

Early on, as single hands greatly affected the order of the participants, my PC ground close to a halt, trying to keep up with the list.

I did OK, floating up and down, mostly staying in the middle of the pack. As long as you’re not ‘short stacked’ and forced to make drastic decisions, it’s OK to float and hope to stay in the middle as the field is winnowed.

I outlasted 5503 of the 7377 and finished in 1874th place. You get no prize for that.

My Waterloo came when I sniffed out someone’s bluff. He bet strongly, but I held good cards, giving me two pair and a decent kicker. I called him to go all in.

Unfortunately, there were two more cards to draw, and he ‘caught’ on the second. In poker parlance, it was a bad beat – though not the worst by any means.

This one hand was large enough to have vaulted me closer to the lead than the middle. It was just not meant to be.

Amazingly, seven hours after the tournament started, it still hasn’t been decided. I just looked in to see 274 still standing, with 234 taking home the big prize. I feel bad for the next 40 who fall.

Maybe next year.

A Day At The Tables

24 Feb ’06, 2.22pm EST

Originally uploaded by geoff_fox.

Very windy – went to Foxwoods. Wish me luck.

That line above was thumbed onto my phone while playing poker. It was about all that went right early in the day.

After my big ‘score’ in the PokerStars satellite tournament, I thought some real poker might be fun. I don’t usually sit face-to-face while I play… in pajamas.

Foxwoods is around an hour from here. We drive by another beautiful casino, Mohegan Sun, to get there. About twenty minutes before poker became hot, Mohegan Sun shut their room. I’ve heard all sorts of rumors, but never an official explanation for why they closed.

As has been my custom recently, I sat down at a $10/$20 table and proceeded to bleed money. I’m a little embarrassed by how much I lost (and won’t put the amount here), but with the bets being in increments of $10 and $20, it mounts quickly.

Ouch.

My mood had shifted from good to bad. So, why not spread a little sunshine around? I headed toward Helaine in another part of the casino.

I took the shortcut to get to where she was from where I was. That involves cutting through the men’s room!

Helaine was having fun. She really didn’t want to go. We compromised and had an early dinner… or late lunch… take your choice.

We sat along a wall in the lounge attached to Cedar’s Steakhouse. On one TV, foreigners with unpronounceable names were playing hockey in an Olympic medal round. Go guy with 15 consonants and no vowels! On another TV, Scooter Libby’s lawyer explained how much classified data he’d need for Scooter’s trial, while commentators speculated it was a ploy to get the charges dropped.

Scooter’s my age for heaven’s sake. No one our age should be named Scooter.

Loaded up on chowder, burger and French fries the size of waffles, I decided to give poker another chance. Helaine told me an attitude adjustment was in order.

I went back, sat down and began to win.

I had an incredible mountain to climb… which I did. By the time we left, I was down $5. It’s so incredibly unlikely, I’ll say it again. I lost $5 for the day. And that was after tipping the dealer on every winning hand and tipping the waitress who delivered bottled water, coffee and a Baileys (the only alcoholic beverage I drink. What a wuss I am).

I got up from the table and we left. I am a happy man.

Before I close out this entry, two casino observations.

As you walk toward Foxwoods’ poker room, you pass a portion of the casino with unusual games. I don’t know their names. I have no idea of the rules. They are played, almost exclusively, by Asian men and women.

It is astounding to walk through this area and see nothing but Asian faces – most of them puffing cigarettes. I don’t know if the number of smokers here reflects the Asian-American population in general, but it is quite noticeable and a much higher percentage of smokers in one place than I remember seeing in decades.

The second observation concerns something we saw just before we left. Helaine was alongside my table, waiting for me to get up and cash out. She told me to turn and pointed to a coterie of security games and other uniformed casino personnel. Some of them were scurrying around, others standing and milling and others still were holding a white sheet aloft, hiding whatever was behind it.

If someone didn’t die tonight in the poker room, they surely got real sick. I guess that’s inevitable with so many people there all hours of the day and night. It was a little spooky.

As far as I could tell, no game stopped while this commotion was in progress.


Patience Through Poker

Every time she emails me, my friend Wendie tells me how much she enjoys reading the blog – except when I write about poker! Wendie, go elsewhere today.

In real life, when I talk about my obsession for online poker (yes, I’ll admit it’s an obsession), the person on the other end of the conversation always brings up luck. There’s no doubt about it, poker is affected by luck – but only in the short term.

This is really important. Luck would be important if poker were just a card game. As played online and in casinos, it’s really more of a betting game – a very important distinction.

If you can quantify the odds of drawing a hand which will win, you can make educated decisions about when to hold ’em or fold ’em. Poker players talk about odds the pot is laying, an obtuse way of asking whether another bet is a good or bad idea.

I think that’s the part of my game which has improved the most. I understand the value of my bets and the value attached to the bets of others. It’s an imperfect system, because you really don’t know what cards your opponent is holding, but you can often tell by how he reacts to certain situations.

If you were to play against me, you’d see me be less aggressive when you’re a passive, though persistent opponents. Often times, passive play is a ploy to suck out bets from an inferior hand. Too often I’d bust out of a tournament by my own aggressive bet made against a superior hand held by someone playing possum.

Big talk for a guy who is not quite even after 2&#189 years of online play!

Actually, I was down to my last $20 a month or so ago. It upset me that I was going to bust out. I mustered whatever discipline I had and tightened my game.

All of a sudden, the swing began.

When I was down to my last $20, I was playing for very small stakes. I couldn’t afford to lose much at one sitting. I entered $3 + 40&#162 ‘turbo’ tournaments or $5 + 50&#162 ‘regular’ tournaments. The downside was small.. as was the upside.

As I began to play tonight, there was $165 in my bank. That leaves me $10 behind my starting point in August 2003&#185! Considering the tens of thousands of hands I’ve played (no exaggeration), and that the casino is pulling a small commission every time I sit down to play, I’m doing quite well.

I decided to play something a little higher risk tonight – a satellite tournament. For $5 + 50&#162, you enter a tournament to win a $530 entry in a much larger tournament (actually the main tournament will pay at least $1,000,000, shared among those ‘in the money’).

The $5 + 50&#162 amount is a little misleading, because you can rebuy for another $5 and then add-on for $5 more. I’m in for $15 + 50&#162, which bought me $5,000 tournament chips. Those paying the minimum got $1,500.

We started at midnight with 431 players. There were 824 re-buys and 217 add-ons. The $7,360 in the kitty means 13 players will cash out for $530. A 14th ‘only’ gets $470.

I played in a much cheaper version of this tournament last Saturday and missed the money by two positions. Ouch. One stupid bet at the end was the difference between something and nothing.

I’d like to do better tonight… obviously.

Nearly three hours in, there are 67 left. I’m in 4th. Obviously, that’s a good place to be, but not even close to a guarantee I’ll cash out.

If I’m not too depressed, I’ll let you know how I did later on.

Addendum – While I edited this entry, the game played on. Now only 50 are left. I’m in 7th place. No guarantees, but this is a good place to be.

Addendum II –

PokerStars Tournament #19966358, No Limit Hold’em

Super Satellite

Buy-In: $5.00

431 players

Total Prize Pool: $7360.00

Target Tournament #19571119 Buy-In: $530.00

13 tickets to the target tournament

Tournament started – 2006/02/22 – 23:59:00 (ET)

Dear ctwxman,

You finished the tournament in 1st place.

You qualified to play in Tournament #19571119 and are automatically registered for it.

See Tournament #19571119 Lobby for further details.

If you choose to unregister from this tournament your account will be credited

with $530.00 Tournament dollars. Tournament dollars can be used to buy into

any tournament.

Visit our web site at http://www.pokerstars.com/tournaments.html for more details.

Congratulations!

Thank you for participating.

I guess I’m up now!

&#185 – I originally bought in for $250. Along the way, a friend asked if I’d put $75 in his account, since it’s a pain in the butt to get the money to Costa Rica. That leaves a net of $175.