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Tells-n-Lies I recently made the annual pilgrimage to the Rio for the 2010 World Series of Poker so I could play in a $1,000 buy-in event on June 5. I arrived plenty early and was happy to see the improved layout and facilities at the Rio this year. The table layout was improved and an additional room full of tournament tables was added. The food was placed in a better location and overall it seemed like Harrah’s was doing a better job. The clock in the food area gave me a nice countdown to tournament time and, with five minutes remaining, I migrated to my table. For some reason it has become fashionable to arrive late for tournaments and my table played four handed for a couple orbits. We stole the blinds of the late arrivals and generally played as fast as possible. I was able to increase my stack from 3,000 to 3,600 in the first hour. As the missing players began to arrive and take their seats they were shocked by the number of chips we were able to take from them in their absence. While the blinds are only 25/25 during the first round, my table may have only seen a single flop in the first 80 hands while we were four handed. A number of people from Fresno traveled to Las Vegas to hang on the rail and cheer me on. A few of my friends were taking pictures and soon complete strangers were snapping pictures of me playing. I have to admit that I have a casual resemblance to Greg Raymer (which reminds me I need to get back on my diet). I have no idea who the crowd thought I was, but I did hear a guy say that I was famous. As I was leaving the table for the second break a young guy stopped me and asked for an autograph and had his picture taken with me. Poker groupies are a new phenomenon for me as I am sure this was a case of mistaken identity. No more than 40 feet from me I noticed Vitaly Lunkin wearing his Full Tilt Poker logo wear. If a person were looking for famous poker players he would be easy to spot after his deep run in the Main Event. Two seats to my right was Lars Bonding, the poker professional that was featured in CardPlayer magazine right before the start of the WSOP. There were many celebrities and known professionals in the room. Playing with Lars Bonding made me happy that I had position on him. Lars was playing fairly aggressively and playing most of the hands. Lars’ style is to apply pressure on his opponents. Lars and I only ended up playing in one pot together and it was very anti-climactic and straightforward for me. Lars was on the button and short stacked late in the third round when the action was folded around to him and he moved all-in for about nine big blinds. The small blind went all-in for about 15 big blinds and I could see that Lars hated his hand. I looked down at pocket kings and called the bet. Lars had 9-6 and the small blind had pocket jacks. A jack on the flop ended Lars’ tournament. No help came for me either and my stack was cut down considerably. Shortly after the fourth round started our table broke. Upon arriving at my next stop I recognized a young professional player that is at the WSOP every year, Jay. I was seated immediately in front of Jay and he had a huge stack of chips. That was a bad break and would prove to be fatal. As I looked around the table I was happy to see a smoking-hot supermodel at the table wearing the logo of an Internet site. I studied her pretty closely; or should I say I spent a long time ogling her? The name was not clicking for me and I did not want to ask her. Finally, the light came on: Kara Scott. Kara is the co-host of High Stakes Poker and cashed in the Main Event in 2008 and 2009. The blinds were 100/200 when Kara shoved all-in. I looked down at A-K. I asked for a count. It was 1,850 and I made the call. Kara tabled pocket sixes and we were in a coin flip situation. A king on the flop gave me the pot and sent Kara to the rail. The guys at the table gave me some light-hearted ribbing about knocking out the super hot chick. Apparently aces can be folded in such circumstances. I followed Kara to the rail about 15 minutes later when I was dealt another A-K this time suited in diamonds. I opened the pot for 625 and Jay, on the button and immediately behind me, raised to 2,000. I considered folding but the hand was too big and Jay is an aggressive player. I called and saw a flop with an ace and two diamonds. I checked my top pair and nut flush draw and Jay bet 1,500. I raised to 3,500. Jay moved all-in and had me covered. I put my chips into the pot with one pair and a draw. Jay had flopped a set of queens. I did not improve so the 2010 WSOP was over for me. I had a great tournament and was never short stacked in spite of losing with pocket kings three times as well as running into a number of sets. I was always one of the larger stacks at the table and had plenty of chips. I probably overplayed that final hand because I finally had an opponent with a larger stack. I could have avoided playing a huge pot with him. Time to start preparing for next year. |