This series of blogs first appeared on the PKR Forum in June
and July 2010. I won a WSOP Experience Package worth $4,000 through a
PKR Road To Vegas Tournament League that ran for several months. Most
players are referred to by their PKR user names.
Part 3
'It won't be long before they tear us to shreds.'
The
PKR welcome party is at the Deuce Lounge, one of the many separated
areas on the main floor of the Aria. The PKR staff posse are all
present as are some of the qualifiers. More turn up as the evening
wears on but not everyone makes it due to flights and other annoyances.
Everyone is is in good spirits. Most of the staff have already been
out for a few days or more. For the most part they actually got a few days off of
work to do this rather rather than spend these hard days by the
poolside Cabana on the blag. PKR_Jake, the VIP Manager, doesn't seem to
have had more than one hours sleep a night for about a week. This is
never a good sign. Beyne has been on psycho blackjack swings all week.
Reports have him from anything to up $50k to down $100k in the space of
the same evening. Bellagio comp room buddy James666 shakes his head
whenever the subject comes up. Suddenly at 24 James is looking like the
sensible and mature one on Team PKR Pro - how on earth did that happen?
PKR_Jake is having his own table games rollercoaster and from here on
in I think should be known as Mini-Beyne.
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| PKR Welcome Party |
Jabba explains PKR V2.0 has been delayed by a few
weeks and assures me fun and exciting ideas are coming soon for the
tournament section, subject to 'patent approval'. Being starving myself
and Jabba order some snack food from the menu. You know you are in VIP
land when 4 mouthfuls of food set sets you back $20. Also at some
point during the evening a smart toilet attendant appears as happens
at some posher clubs in Britain. Some things I don't mind tipping for,
but seriously, don't expect a dollar when I am perfectly capable of
reaching for the paper towels all on my own TYVM. This is probably a
recurring theme from our VIP week. I'm sure these places have staff
that are used to big tippers in their VIP areas, I bet none of them
counted on stingy tight ass poker players.
 |
| Beyne and Danski |
At about
midnight I put in a couple of hours at the 1-3 NL cash tables before
heading off to bed. Reported sightings place some of the more hardcore
members of the staff heading back out of the Aria at 5am in the morning
having already been out to a club inbetween. Hardcore degens.
I
wake up after 4 hours in bed once again. Still, I need to get to the
Rio to preregister before the event so this is not a bad thing. I stuff
myself silly at the gorgeous Aria buffet so I will not need to eat for a
while once the nerves kick in. The buffet is just awesome, stuff from
all over the world, lots of things that just do not belong on a help
yourself line. I get a taxi to the Rio. As I walk from the main casino
through to the convention centre it slowly becomes more WSOP
orientated. Giant banners of past players of the year fill the hallway.
After registering I dawdle around. At the moment barring a few cash
tables the two halls are empty. Tables are everywhere. The scale is
immense but not as intimidating as I expected. I sit in the Poker Food
Hall with DWH103and another qualifier With 20 minutes to go the nerves start
kicking in. At this point I just want to start playing. Not playing is
now worse than playing could ever be. I pace around for the last ten
minutes and find my chair.
 |
| WSOP at the Rio |
I don't recognise anyone at my
starting table. With my fairly deep knowledge of poker this is a good
sign. After the immortal 'Shuffle Up and deal' I am suddenly playing in
the WSOP... /OMG. First hand I am in the big blind. A few players
limp in and I look down to see K 9o. I check the option and am rewarded
with a K 9 3 rainbow flop. I check, as does everyone else. I bet
small on the turn and everyone folds. I have won the first hand, not a
big pot, but it makes me feel better. I pick up and lose a few small
standard pots but am glad to see I am fast picking up a strong read of
the table. In the first big hand on the table I put both guys on their
exact hands. There is such a thing though as concentrating too hard
however as my first key hand showed. This is probably the most
embarrassing hand of poker I have ever played. A guy raises in late
position who has been more active than most and I look down to see 10 6
of clubs. I decide to flat call and screw with him a little if the
opportunity presents. The flop comes low with 2 spades. He fires a
standard small continuation bet. I decide as a lot of hands he has here
will be two big overs to try and raise him out. If he jams I know he
has the big overpair. If he calls I know he has a likely weak overpair
and I can then check the turn and try and represent the spade draw if it
lands on the river or bet it if the spade hits the turn. He calls and
the turn is a brick. He checks, I check. The river is not a spade. He
checks again though... suddenly I feel like bluffing again may take the
pot anyway. I fire out a decent bet into the pot. He calls pretty
quickly and I just want to muck my 10 high. As experience has taught
me that weird things happen in poker I show my cards face up after
looking like I want to muck them. When the dealer says flush I almost
fall out of my seat. I have been so intensely concentrating on my bluff
line that I clean failed to notice that I had runner runnered a club
flush. The other guy is of course disgusted that his pocket 10s
(exactly the sort of hand I put him on after he just called the raise!)
have been beaten by some donk who doesn't even know when he has a flush.
This table image would have been perfect for exploitation though sadly
they break this rather soft starting table just fifteen minutes later.
My
2nd table seems okay to start with and I am up 1K on my 3k starting
stack after close to 2 hours. After the 2nd level we break. The trick
to finding a toilet during a WSOP break is to start walking to the far
end of the Rio as fast as possible. The queues are actually bearable
down the far end. I run across a few people for a quick update but it
is straight back into action. No PKR staff are anywhere to be seen
after the particularly heavy night they had. In quick succession
the 3 guys at my new table I marked as idiots bust out... none of them
throwing chips my way. In the most annoying fashion possible each
is replaced by an obvious online Pro. To my left sits down a Russian
guy, not one of the top tier of superstars, but some one who I
recognise. He strikes up a conversation with the guy to my right who he
knows about how well all the guys he is staking (thousands of dollars
worth) have done during the last couple of weeks. He knows the guy to
my right because he is being staked by Timoshenko. I buckle my seat belt and prepare to dig in. I of course go card dead at
this point and get played back at constantly in the sort of ugly spots
you just can't do a lot about. After 3 and a half blind levels I am
down to 1.8k from the 3k starting stack and take a stand with pocket 6s
against an obvious big ace. He turns over A Q and the flop of course
drops A Q x on me. You have to win flips to win bracelets and I haven't
in this one. I spend the next few hours catching up with who is in and
who is out. I spotted Gavin Griffin and Kara Scott playing but then in
quick succession saw most of the rest of the poker world. Moneymaker,
Dennis Phillips. Going into the other room were some sick tables,
especially in the $25K six max event. At one table is Greenstein,
Seidel and Sam Trickett. On the next one over Phil Ivey is drawing a
huge rail as always. At a feature table is John Juanda, and at the main
flashy TV table sits John Duthie. Elswhere is Juha Hellpi, Barney
Boatman, Vanessa Rousso and on and on it gos.
 |
| TV feature table |
At this point
Pirate Nation arrives having only just got into Vegas. We head back to
the Aria and hit the NL tables. I have an annoying session where I
can't win a flip. Despite that I am only down about $100 dollars. I
spot a super soft table nearby and ask to go on the waiting list. As
this happens I see a player get up and Japete gets the seat before I get
a chance, damn you Spaniard! I wait 90 minutes dying a slow death at
my nitty table watching the drunks dumping their their cash off left
right and centre. When a seat finally opens the game has broken up
within 10 minutes. FML. I think about sleep, it now being about 1am
but instead take a seat at the $4/8 limit game where PKR_Danski,
PKR_Jake, PKR_Scott and PKR_Harry are engaged in psychotic action with
an uber-donk and a couple of spewtards. 4 or 5 players are regularly
seeing the 5 bet cap putting $100 dollars into most pots preflop. As a
guy who plays a lot of $3/6 and $5/10 limit the scale of the action is
mind blowing. Being rivered in a $300 pot at $4/8 limit is just not an
average occurrence. Sick beats go down left right and centre. Insults
and banter fly. A really nice guy joins the table who claimed to be 54
but looked about 35. The PKR posse took to calling him Peter Pan for
the rest of the night, when Dan wasn't calling him his 'Dawg'
in a really bad American accent. The game broke at about 6am in the
morning by which point Danski was pre tipping every dealer and taking
the piss out of their names ('Ping' being the favourite) and tipping
everyone at the table each time he won. Somehow I ended up stuck about
$200 dollars despite being the least drunk whilst Scott and Harry walked
off with about $600 a piece.
 |
| Fixed Limit degeneracy |
Stay tuned for the truth about
Waswheelchairgate, which PKR Pro spent the morning in a Las Vegas jail
drunk tank and more exciting adventures!
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