Poker Ambassador
Taking a firsthand taste of the WSOP
By Randall Rapp

One thing becomes quickly apparent when visiting Las Vegas in May: World Series fever is affecting poker rooms throughout the city. It seems like every casino in town has a series of tournaments overlapping those going on in the Amazon Room at the Rio.

You can find a wide variety of buy-ins (from $25 to $10,000), structures (deep stack to short stack, hour long levels to 15 minutes), and games played (Hold’em, Omaha, Stud, Razz, etc.). If you can’t find the sort of tournament you’re interested in, you’re not looking very hard!

It was into this environment that your Ambassador recently stepped with the idea of playing a few small tournaments while harboring a goal of playing his way into one of the official World Series events. (At the same time, of course, keeping on eye on players from Northern California to see how they’re making out on the big stage.) Mrs. A had a goal of her own while we were there: making a play at winning a seat into the WSOP Ladies event.

Our first day there we decided to get our feet wet at the morning tournament at Caesars Palace. This 9:00 a.m. no-limit Hold’em tournament has a $65 buy-in (with a $5 “staff appreciation” add-on) and has a generous structure with 30 minute levels. It’s a great value for the money and the staff and facilities at Caesars are excellent.

Mrs. A (whose tournament experience up to this point has been fairly limited) did a great job making it down to the final two tables. Unfortunately for her, she made a big raise at the wrong time and lost most of her chips to yours truly (hey, at least they stayed in the family). I managed to hang in there until we were down to the final five players when everyone voted to go ahead and chop the rest of the prize pool.

I’m not a huge fan of chopping. I’d ­really rather play it out, but there seems to be a bad karma thing attached to being the lone holdout when everyone else is in favor, so I usually find myself giving in. Besides, it was good for a nice little payday to start the trip when all five of us walked away with approximately second place money.

The next day we were downtown at the Gold Nugget so Mrs. A could play in the LIPS qualifier for the WSOP Ladies event. The Ladies International Poker Series was hosting this satellite with a $150 buy-in. The field was large and experienced and Mrs. A felt in a bit over her head. She didn’t win one of the seats, but came away with a sense of where she needs to be to make a solid run at it next year.

While she played the tournament I took a seat at one of their $2/2 no-limit games. It seemed like all the good dealers must have been over at the Rio, because if it weren’t for the players paying attention, many pots would have been irretrievably screwed up. I was pleased to get out of there with my starting stack intact in order to try again elsewhere.

It wouldn’t be Vegas if you didn’t go to a show or two, so that night we scored tickets to see Mama Mia! at Mandalay Bay. It was a pretty good show, even for a non-Abba, non-musical audience member such as me. Mrs. A enjoyed it immensely and that made it worth having “Dancing Queen” stuck in my head for the rest of the evening.

In the morning we went back to the Rio to see how our NorCal brethren (and “sisteren”) were doing at the Series and discovered that San Rafael’s Matt Keikoan had won a bracelet in Event 7 ($2,000 buy-in, no-limit Hold’em) a few days earlier. Way to go, Matt!

With my eye now firmly on playing in Event 17 ($1,500 buy-in, no-limit Hold’em shootout), I decided to take a shot at one of their single table satellites in an attempt to win a seat. They offer these satellites in a wide range of buy-ins, with payoffs to match. I took some of my winnings from Caesars and plunked down $175 to give it a go. The winner would receive three $500 tournament buy-in chips (just enough to get into Event 17) plus an extra $120 cash.

As you would expect, the structure is set up to get these tables done relatively quickly (so they can start another one!), leaving no time for messing around. It wasn’t long before I was the chip leader at the table after knocking out a couple of players. Then I had enough chips to lean on the other players and make them fold their mediocre hands in order to accumulate still more chips.

It wasn’t long before we were down to three players: the two I had tagged as the better players at the table and me. My chip stack was still much larger than theirs and I continued to take advantage of it. I soon had one of them all-in and then out, so I was playing heads-up with about a seven-to-one chip advantage.

My opponent played well and picked up some good hands, and soon we were almost even. It was at this point that he proposed a chop. I thought about it for a minute, and realized that the whole reason for playing this satellite was to get those three buy-in chips. One or two wasn’t going to do me much good. Besides, he’d just had a hot streak and I figured he was due to cool off, so I said, “Let’s play it out.”

Sure enough, momentum swung back in my direction, and after another dozen or so hands I had all the chips. I couldn’t believe it! The next day I would be playing in one of the big events at the WSOP, and it would only cost me $55 instead of $1,500!

Walking into the Amazon room the next day was different than the day before, knowing this time I was a participant and not a spectator. The room seemed even bigger and the number of people more staggering. The event was sold out at 1,000 players. It being a “shootout” format, the object for every player was to win their ­table in order to move on and make it into the money. Those fortunate 100 would then be reseated at 10 more tables to repeat the process so that they would wind up with a final table of 10 players.

I was surprised when play began that I wasn’t really nervous at all. It was just another poker tournament, with the same rules and goals as any other. That didn’t even change when two-time bracelet winner Scott Fischman sat down right beside me. He was friendly but not overly talkative, mostly intent on playing his game without attracting too much attention.

On only the second hand of the tournament I made a pot-sized bet after the flop (and the pot wasn’t that big!), only to have a youngster across the table move all-in over the top. Second hand and he’s already shoving all his chips in the middle with a massive overbet! Wishing I had a monster hand (I didn’t), I reluctantly folded, thinking that if he kept that up he wasn’t likely to last long. Besides, I didn’t want to be the first one out if I could avoid it.

Over the course of the next level and a half I managed to win a few small pots while having to fold marginal hands to big bets. The structure here wasn’t going to allow for as much patience as you might hope, since the starting stacks were only 3,000 even though the levels were an hour long.

Pretty soon, as I predicted, Mister All-in from the second hand was doing it again (for about the fourth time) and this time he got caught and was the first one eliminated. He was followed soon after by another player who seemed to be involved in almost every pot.

The second level was almost over and half my chips were gone. The blinds would be going up soon, so I knew that I would probably have to be willing to go all the way with the next hand I played. I was dealt pocket sixes and raised to three times the big blind from late position, hoping to just pick it up right there. The player to my left and his big stack of chips called. The flop was Q-9-6 rainbow. I checked my set, hoping to induce a bet with the goal of doubling up, but he checked too. The turn was a deuce and I chose to check again. This time he made a bet that represented about 40 percent of my stack. Thinking I had him right where I wanted him—trying to steal the pot—I moved all-in.

Unfortunately, he quickly called saying, “I flopped a set.” I couldn’t help but groan and say, “So did I,” as I turned over my sixes and he showed his nines. I was dead to one of the two remaining sixes, which, of course, didn’t materialize on the river.

Thus ended my first foray into the World Series of Poker. I suppose I could have played the hand differently—possibly by going all-in before the flop—but something tells me he would have called anyway with his nines. We’ll never know, but at least I came away feeling like it took a cold deck to knock me out. It was an experience I wouldn’t trade and can’t wait to give it another shot next year.

Our trip ended on a great note, however. We decided to enter the 9:00 a.m. morning tournament at Caesars again on our last day. After three or four hours of play we were down to the final table and there I was again, only this time Mrs. A was sitting right beside me.