The Curse Returns

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I’ve been playing on and off in tournaments at the Venetian and the Wynn these last couple weeks. I had a small cash at the Venetian, placing 11^th in a small tournament about a week ago. Other than that, though, not too good. I did meet one guy at the table from New Orleans who was really nice. At some point he asked me if I’d won any major tournaments. I guess it was a leading question. “Not yet,” I said, “How about you?”

“I won the WSOP Main event,” he said.

He turned out to be Joseph Hebert who had not really cashed much better than me until finishing first in the 2020 WSOP U.S. Main Event, winning $ 1,553,256. That was the year of COVID, and they held an online U.S. event and a U.S. Europe event. The final 9 players played live except for one player in the U.S. who tested positive for COVID and was denied entry and automatically given 9^th place money. I just watched on PokerGo and it was actually touching. His mom had passed away shortly before the tournament, and he dedicated the win to her. He called his wife from the empty Rio Casino and broke down in tears.

The winners of each event then played live heads up in another tournament where he lost to the European champion, Damian Salas who had previously made the WSOP Main Event final table in 2015, finishing 7^th. I often wonder how someone can make the final table twice in a tournament that has over ten thousand entries. Famous champion Doyle Brunson did it back to back, but in his days there were only 20-some to 30-some entries.

I played all day. Did well in the beginning, table chip leader, ran dead for hours, busted out.

Back to me. This past week, I played in the Wynn Millions tournament, a great small buy-in ($600) tournament with 6 flights of Day 1, which made it a guaranteed $500,000 prize pool. Lots of professional players were there. I didn’t do well, busting out several times. I gave it one more try yesterday. Actually I gave it four more tries. Oy!

In the morning, I was running great. Early on, I flopped a set of 8s and made quads on the river. I had actually flopped quad 7s the day before. I’ve been getting quads much more often these days than I can remember previously, but while each time gave me a nice bump to my stack, in the long run they didn’t help as I ran card dead for hours after that and busted out.

I reentered the evening tournament, separate from the one I had just played, giving me a fresh start with a $30K stack that should last for a while since the blinds started at $100. On the third hand, I got A♣K♠. One player raised from $300 to $1,000. Another player called. I reraised to $4,500. One player called, the other folded. The flop was 7♣4♣3♦. He bet $2,000. I raised to $5,000. He reraised to $12,000, about 1/2 of my remaining stack. I figured it was unlikely he hit something on that low board and if he had something, he would have checked to keep me in the hand. I also figured I had a club, so I had a shot, though a longshot, at the nut flush if two more clubs came up. And he couldn’t know if I had one or two clubs in my hand. So I shoved. He called and showed J♣10♣. I was ahead! Until a club came on the turn and another one did not come on the river. I busted out after 3 hands.

I immediately reentered. On my first hand, I got A♠K♠. Again, I raised a lot and got one caller. We both bet on each round as the board ran out Q♠10♦7♦10♥Q♣. I figured my A was probably good unless he had AA, KK, 77, Qx, or 10x. AA was unlikely since I had an A in my hand and anyway, he probably would have reraised before the flop. KK was also unlikely for the same reason. Having a Q was possible, a 10 was possible, and pocket 7s was possible. But I had already put a lot into the pot, so I shoved. Being the aggressor is always best because it might scare him into folding. Unfortunately he had a Q, and I was out in one hand!

Then I reentered. Professional poker player Matt Affleck was to my right. I hardly played any hands for about an hour, and the few I did play all lost. Then without only 10 big blinds left, I got A5 in the big blind. Everyone folded to Matt in the small blind. As I had hoped, he shoved. I knew that since his stack was so big and mine was so small, he would shove with any two cards just to intimidate me into folding. I couldn’t risk calling unless I had a really good hand. But I did have a really good hand. I called, and he revealed J5, giving me 3:1 odds, which thrilled me. Pretty much only a J would help him. And… on the flop… that stupid J showed up. I needed an A to retake the lead, but I didn’t get it.

I think it’s time to stop playing for a while and find something else to do with my time and money. At least until next month.

About the author

Bob Zeidman is a high-stakes recreational poker player. He created Good Beat Poker, a free online poker site using patented technology for audio and video—see and hear the other players at the table if you choose.