Prepping for the WSOP
The World Series of Poker (WSOP) starts tomorrow. The WSOP consists of many tournaments (thus the “series” in the name), and the Main Event doesn’t start until July 3, but there are lots of smaller tournaments in the series before then. I’ll be traveling on and off for work over the next few weeks, but right now I have all my consulting work done, the Lindell case actions and counteractions are being handled by my attorneys at Bailey & Glasser, my book on the Lindell case is in the hands of my agent who’s shopping it around to publishers, my Firtiva patent litigation is in the hands of my patent litigation attorneys at Saul Ewing as we search for funders, and my software developers are finalizing my online poker site Good Beat Poker. So I had some free time tonight and decided to enter a small buy-in tournament at the South Point Casino. Being Memorial Day, there was a large turnout, and the prize pool was larger than usual.
Things started out well. I noticed that the players at my table were not highly skilled and kept going all in. There’s no reason to do that so early in the tournament, especially since there was a long waiting list, so anyone who busted out might not get back in. I simply waited to get a great hand and then either call their all-in or encourage them to go all-in. In short time, I had over $200K compared to the average stack of $50K—over four times the average stack.
At that point, I just thought I needed to play carefully and dominate the table. That was the case until, within five hands in a row, I lost nearly all of my stack. Four short stacks shoved while I had AQ suited. I called each one, and each one had an ace with a much smaller card. I was ahead each time before the flop, but each time, they ran out with a pair, a straight or a flush to beat me.
Then I got into it with the other big stack at the table. I had K♣Q♠. The flop was Q high with three clubs, so I felt pretty good. He kept betting big, and I kept calling. On the river, a fourth club came. There were no pairs on the board, so a flush was the best hand, and I had the second best one possible. He bet really big.
Earlier in the tournament, I had seen this player bet big and later showed a 72 off-suit, the worst hand in poker. So I knew he could bluff. If he didn’t have a flush, the only way for him to win the hand was to bluff. I had already put a lot of chips into the pot and just felt that I couldn’t fold the second-best possible hand, so I called him. Unfortunately, he really had the A♣. I lost most of my stack and was down to maybe 15 big blinds. Within about 10 minutes, in five nearly consecutive hands, I had gone from chip leader to short stacked.
I played really tight after that and was miraculously able to stay in the tournament until we got very close to the money. My stack was short, but I was always able to get a decent hand and shove at just the right time to stay in the tournament. One of the most disappointing times was when I got pocket As in the big blind and everyone folded to me. The player on the button, the one who beat me with the flush, folded and told me I had a tell, because I watched each player fold with a look of disappointment. I don’t think that was really true, because I keep a straight face and usually watch each player act. But who knows.
Finally, we were on the money bubble, and I had about 8 big blinds under the gun. I got AJ, so I shoved. One player called. He turned over his cards to show KQ. I felt pretty good. The flop was J89. I felt even better. The turn was 3. I felt really good. The river was 10 and I felt great for an instance until I realized he had gotten the nut straight to beat me. I once again busted on the bubble.
The only consolation was that another player had busted out at the same time, so we split the minimum cash. Overall, my night of poker had cost me $23. I guess it could have been worse. I only hope all the bad luck is now out of my system in time for the WSOP and that winner’s bracelet I’ve been coveting for so long.