Larry in the World Series of Poker

How I got in...

The tournament I won for my entry was a $216 buy-in super satellite on fulltiltpoker.com which would give away a seat to the big one for every 60 people that played. We started with 180 people -- so 3 people would win...

]]> It was a well structured online tournament which increased the blind bets at a comfortable pace. The players acted quickly so we got in a good number of hands per round. I was selectively aggressive -- the way you are supposed be. I did very well -- making very few costly mistakes. I was able to keep my stack up in the top 20 or so players for most of the tournament. I had my share of some good pots, and lost a few of course.

I paid attention. I made player notes. I thought about everything. I was focused and excited. My son Max watched the last hour and we screamed and yelled as I won and lost pots. No one could hear us. We screamed at people to fold their hands when I bet with nothing. And they did. But they couldn't know. We had our best internet poker faces on. Can't do that the same way in the real thing.

Railbirds watching the final table were gambling on which 3 players would wind up winning it. I had one of the smallest stacks of chips, but someone correctly picked me and the other two winners. My key hand was a semi-bluff bet for all my remaining chips on a 4 flush (I hadn't made my flush yet). I got one caller and needed to pull the club on the last two cards and did!

When it got down to only four people left I was almost crying. I REALLY wanted to win. I was hoping two of the other remaining players would go after each other so I could slip into the winning 3 spots. And two of them did! One guy with the second highest stack spent it all on a crazy and unsuccessful bluff when he really didn't have to. Not the time in the tournament to be doing that -- and against the largest stack! So I was in!

Thanks Claudia!

A special thank you to my girlfriend, Claudia, for not needing my attention on a Sunday afternoon! I have to say, if she hadn't been supportive of me "wasting" my Sunday afternoon playing online poker, I wouldn't be on my way to "wasting" 10 days in Vegas in the middle of July!

Passing of the chips...

People have asked why I haven't been posting any warm up stories for the World Series over the last few weeks. Unfortunately, it is for a very sad reason. My father had been ill since January and was in and out of the hospital for four months. He gave way to old age just a couple of weeks ago.

Oddly enough -- and fitting for this Blog -- I did get to play against him and my sister in his final poker game...

]]> At 85 years old, he sat weak and worn and wearied in a wheelchair in his recovery center. We managed to pile up some chips on a little stand and play a small three handed holdem tournament. He was very quiet. It was hard to know how much mental activity he was up for. But you know what? He knew what he looked like, and in his final classic poker move, he used this against me. While pondering if I wanted to bet into him with my decent cards, or just let it go with a check, I noticed him reaching for his chips as if to bet. Of course, seeing this, I decided to check to see what he would bet. He immediately pulled his hand back and checked. I couldn't believe it. "Dad, did you just do that on purpose? You just reached for your chips just to make me check?" He just smiled one of his soft knowing smiles. Of course I had him, but I didn't make as much as I could. He did it on purpose in his classic fashion.

A few hands later he pulled the miracle card on the turn to nearly put me out of the tournament, but I came right back and got my own miracle on the river to catch back up. We left it even stacked (my sister having been eliminated) as his food arrived. He got tired after eating, and we never did finish the tournament. I wonder who would have won. We'll have to finish it some day.

In the hospital he had been very excited about knowing I'd be in the upcoming world series. He was telling all the nurses and doctors. But he didn't know that in his little way he would actually be making it there too. This may seem a little odd, but I feel it is perfectly fitting: I have had some of his ashes placed into a special memento that I will have with me at the World Series tables to cover my cards with.

Dad, let's do it together in July...

I need a nickname!

In case I do get far into the World Series of Poker I will need a nickname. I've already rejected "The Rabbi" and "The Squealer." If you have something better for me, please let me know!...

Coincidence or something else?

I played a couple of small tournaments on FullTiltPoker.com simultaneously for some practice. I was doing OK but suddenly got very unlucky hands in both tournaments and within a minute I was eliminated from both. Then I remembered the memento with Irwin's ashes. I got up, brought it back over to help me, and played one more sit-and-go tournament. Sure enough, I won it. Just a coincidence? I like to think not!

I play on Friday...

I'm in Vegas now! I picked up my entry and I'm scheduled to play on Friday for day 1(b) of the final event! 2200 players will start each day Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and the fields will be reduced to about 700 players each day. So day 2 for me will be on Sunday if I can survive!

stars in my eyes....

I've now been in Las Vegas for 24 hours and have had more action than I can remember -- and I haven't gambled a single dollar yet!

Last night I was fortunate to be included in an invitation-only celebrity/poker pro party thrown by Full Tilt Poker and Bluff Magazine (I ranked an invite because I helped connect Rhythm & Hues and Fult Tilt to create the graphics for the poker site -- thanks Stacey Burstin!)...

]]> The party took over the dance club at the new Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas. This is the most expensive hotel ever built in Las Vegas, and the dance club has the class to match. Poker tables, with dealers, were set up in the middle of the party scene so people could sit down and play small free one-table poker tournaments with other guests -- guests which included many famous poker players and hollywood celebrities. In addition to 15 or 20 famous Poker players, Penn (from Penn and Teller), David Brenner, Jennifer Tilly, Rob Livingston (Office Space and Sex and The City (Berger)), Andrea Parker (The Pretender), and other Hollywood actors and producers were there. Whoever won a tournament could donate $1000 to the charity of their choice ( the boys and girls club of Las Vegas being the default).

I played two tournaments and won one. In the second tourney I sat next to Rob Livingston and chatted with him for a while. A very nice guy -- and I told him he should be very proud of the work he did as the main character in "Office Space" (one of my favorite movies). I'm sure he really didn't care what I thought, but he was gracious and nice anyway. A good guy. Andrea Parker was also very nice. It was a thrill to meet them both, and a bigger thrill to knock them off the poker tables with better cards than theirs :)

My sister was there with me. I don't think she's ever been around anything like this before. She got a great thrill in knocking Layne Flack out of a tournament!

Among the poker pros in attendence were Paul Wolf, Phil Gordon, Phil Ivey, Eric Seidel, Andy Bloch, Howard Ledderer, Clonie Gowen, Chris Ferguson, Mel Judah, and many more.

And the drinks were on the house too. It was hard to complain.

I could be f'd....

It look like this year they have put in place a no cursing rule at the tables. I've never seen that done in Poker before. This could be a big problem for me! If you are overheard using the f-word in any capacity you are given a 10 minute timeout and your chips are blinded-off while you are forced to sit out and wait...

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In one of the major events a few days ago, the tournament got down to only two players remaining. They were playing for 1/2 million dollars. The player with 4 times as many chips as the other accidentally said the word, and they forced him to sit out and watch while the other player collected the blinds as each hand was dealt for 10 minutes. Amazingly, the player was able to return with enough chips left to still win the tournament.

I'm from New York you know. As David Weinberg has said, the New York alphabet goes F-in A, F-in B, F-in C, ....

Dang!

On my way...

I'm heading down to play! I just learned that the guy leading day 1, Lee Watkinson, was the guy I wound up heads-up against at the party the other night. I wound up beating him when we had even chip counts and won the one table just-for-charity tourney. Close encounters.

Claudia came up with a good name for me too. The Turtle!

Still alive

730 pm still alive with $10,000 after 4 rounds. Will need some luck soon!

Oh well....

Well, it was fun anyway! Yes, I was eliminated late in the 7th round. I made it 14 hours in (1:45 AM). The blinds and antes were getting serious enough that I needed to pick a spot and make a move to get some chips or I would soon be too low. I was losing $1250 every 10 hands just by the blinds -- and playing a hand meant putting in up to $3000 before the flop (therefore a $3000 to $6000 bet after the flop). I had about $10,000 left. I had to make a stand with A-Q when the flop came up Queen high. I bet $6000 and the guy next to me put me all in. Unfortunately I ran into pocket Aces and a queen didn't come.

The day started with almost 2000 people, and I made it down to about 700.

My most exciting moment came earlier when I doubled up to $20,000 while knocking out another player. He had less money than I at the time, so I wasn't facing elimination, but if I had lost I would have been very low. I had AK and the flop had come A Q 7. We went back and forth raising until all his money was in -- I thought he was just trying to push me out at first and assumed my AK was good. He wound up having AQ, so I looked dead once I saw that. But the K came up on the turn card and I had better two pair. He was shocked and sulked away.

In the end, I think I played pretty well -- had confidence most of the time -- and never said the F-Bomb to get a timeout. Of course I'd like to blame the cards for my loss. I watched a guy next to me get pocket Aces four times while I got only one high pair, and one flopped set (3 of a kind) dealt to me in 14 hours of play.

I'll elaborate more later once I get some coffee and my spirits back.
Thanks to all who wanted to follow along this year!

In good company

To help myself feel better, I looked up some of the famous poker pros who were also elminated on Day 1 along with me. It's quite a list. When the cards don't come, even the best of them get eliminated.

All of these players are out on day 1:
Johnny Chan
Chris Ferguson
Danny Negreanu
Chris Bigler
Erik Seidel
Josh Arieh
Scott Fischman
Humberto Brenes
Clonie Gowen
Devil Fish Ulliott
Mike Caro
Eskimo Clark
Barry Greenstein
Jennifer Tilly
Mike Laing
Jennifer Harmon
Phil Hellmuth
Mimi Rogers
Phil Gordon
Cyndy Violette
Dewey Tomko
Evelyn Ng
Men "The Master" Nguyen
Antonio Esfandiari
Kathy Liebert
Tobey Maguire
John Bonetti
Tony Ma
Thor Hansen
John D'Agostino
Tom McEvoy
Jim Brechtel
James Woods
Mel Judah
Andy Block
Chip Jett
TJ Cloutier
and others....

Further analysis (more whining)

I still need to do some whining (not winning, whining).

When you analyze a little, you can see just how poor the cards ran for me over 14 hours of play. If you consider that in 14 hours of slow playing one should see 400 to 500 hands (30 hands per hour), then statistically I should have, on average, been dealt a high pair (aces, kings, or queens) 6 or 7 times instead of once. That one time was a pair of Kings in early position which were folded to when I made the standard raise of 3 times the big blind. So I collected only the antes with it.

I was also never dealt a hand of suited connectors (something like Jack-Ten suited) in a position I could play. I did get AQ a couple of times (which resulted in me getting busted) and AK about 3 times.

I made some bold moves, stole some pots, and did what I could with the cards I was dealt -- reaching almost $25,000 at one point in the tournament.

As for fault in my play, I will admit that I probably got pushed out of a couple of pots by one aggressive guy who may have been taking advantage of my tight play to force me to make all-in decisions before I really wanted to. But should I have put in 2/3 or all of my money in with a pair of threes after the flop or AQ before the flop to see if he was bluffing? I decided not to. So he got 5 or 6 thousand out of my bet-before-the-flop attempts.

If there is a lesson I did learn, though, it's that in a tournament like this you absolutely cannot try to hold on and survive. You have to be aggressive and push on the windows of opportunity from the beginning. This was my first time in this event, and I really did want to hold on -- so I was holding back a little. Next time, I won't be afraid to be eliminated in the first hour if that's what it will take.

How the F-Bomb played out at my tables

In general, the dealers tended to ignore when someone said the F-bomb -- especially when uttered by accident in a friendly manner.

But there was one situation at my table which did result in a player receiving the 10 minute suspension. It was kind of funny. A player started to throw his hand away before realizing that he actually had flopped a set (3 of a kind). He had let go of his cards, and they just touched the discard pile (the muck). Once the cards touch the muck, the hand is dead. The dealer told him so, and the player, as one would expect, proudly annouced the f-word. Then he dropped his head to the table as he realized what he had just said in front of this strict dealer. He was gone for 10 after that.

Being on TV

As for being on TV, there is a chance, depending on how depressed I looked when I got eliminated, that I could show up in an edit of the event on ESPN. The camera crew tried to film any situation which resulted in an all-in player. I did notice that they were, in fact, filming me as I dejectedly got up from my table and grabbed my coat off the back of the chair and slunked away. The agony of defeat.