Arrived Early, Left Early!

Man, was I looking forward to playing in a World Poker Tour (WPT) event, any WPT event. I had not played in a history-making event with a huge prize pool since November, and Commerce Casino's $10,000 buy-in L.A. Poker Classic championship event proved to have an especially huge prize pool, including $2.4 million for first place. After skipping five major events in January, and watching contemporaries like Daniel Negreanu, Scotty Nguyen, and Michael Mizrachi win, I was raring to go!



After all, I'm a proud guy, and seeing all of those other guys win stirred me up a bit. Yes, I did win a $700,000 condo at the W Las Vegas Hotel, Casino and Residences tournament in January at the Sundance Film Festival, but I doubt that anyone in the poker world respects that win – against a bunch of movie stars – very much. So, off I went, and I was actually on time for the first time in years. (In retrospect, I wish I'd come 70 minutes late.)

About 65 minutes into the tournament, with the blinds still only $25-$50, Josh Arieh raised to $175 to go, I called with the A J, and a player behind me also called. The flop was J 7 4, Arieh bet out $800, and I called again. At this point, with top pair and top kicker, I loved my hand and probably should have raised (usually the right move here), but something told me to just call. The turn card was the 2 (making a flush possible), and Arieh checked. I bet $1,000, and Arieh called me. The last card was the 10, and Arieh bet out $800. Of course, with four spades on the board, any spade he may have had in his hand would beat my hand, but I know that Arieh is more than capable of attempting to bluff me. Besides, $800 wasn't much to call. So, I did call, and Arieh showed me the Q Q, which had me beat all the way. OK, it could have been much worse; I could have raised him on the flop and really stubbed my toe.



Three hands later, in the small blind, I looked down at 4-4 as Mike McClain made it $150 to go. I suddenly had a very bad feeling that I was going to go broke if I played this hand. But sometimes when I have this feeling and fold, it turns out that I would have won a huge pot. So, I told myself, "If you flop a set here, then move all in and go broke, so be it." Everyone else folded, I called, and the flop was J 6 4. Terrific, I had flopped my set! I checked, McClain bet $300, and I raised to $900 to go. McClain then reraised to $2,500 to go, and I briefly thought about just calling him. The fact that there was a flush draw on the board meant that McClain could have had a flush draw with a hand like the A Q, or he could have had any big pair, like A-A, K-K, or Q-Q, or even A-J. Calling didn't seem right to me (I haven't played many big pots with my big hands, and I'm trying to change that), so I moved all in for $15,000 or so.

McClain studied for about 30 seconds, and I was relieved. There was no way he would study that long if he had three sixes or three jacks. Finally, he called. I flipped up my hand, and he showed me . . . three sixes! In poker parlance, we call that set over set. Hands don't get any more unlucky than set over set. I had just one win left in the deck, the fourth 4. Even if I had just called the $2,500 on the flop, I would have found nothing ominous about the remaining board cards: The turn card was the 10, and the last card was the 3. So, I never would have seen a reason to fold the hand. There was basically nothing I could have done to save my chips, and I have no regrets. Some may say that I should have trusted that bad feeling and folded my hand before the flop, but I've won some huge pots in the past when I had that same feeling.



Just like that, it was over. I had waited three months to play in a tournament of significance, and I didn't even make it past the first break! Oh well, that's poker.