My 2006 World Series of Poker Saga Continues

In my last column, I talked about what a fun starting table I had for the main event of the World Series of Poker. Two of the most delightful people I have met in a long time kept things fun and interesting. A special thanks goes to Ashleigh Sleiman of Jacksonville, Florida, and Nick Ducey of Cincinnati, Ohio. Without them, especially Ashleigh, I would not have survived the opening day. So, what is this I am babbling about? Well, I am about to tell you.



On opening day, I got pocket kings seven times. Yes, you read that correctly, seven times. That is the good news. The bad news is, I lost twice with them and got knocked down to about $2,200 in chips. Things were looking grim. However, with Ashleigh making jokes, for some reason I did not feel uptight about the tournament. In fact, I was loose and relaxed. Even with my short chip stack, I felt good. If somebody had told me before the day started that I would get knocked down to $2,200 in chips and still be laughing at jokes, I would not have believed him.



Well, now I was down to my case chips, and guess what? I got kings again – one of the seven times I got them that day. I managed to get all the money in before the flop. And do you know what I was up against? You got it right – pocket aces. You know how people stand up from their chair when they are all in with the worst of it. For some reason, I just knew that I would survive this. Ashleigh kept saying, "King, king." My opponent already had cracked my kings with ace-rag earlier. I sat glued to my chair, and sure enough, off popped a king right on the flop. Just when I thought there was no poker justice, I got some luck. About a round or so later, I had $3,800 in chips. Again, I got the pocket kings. There was already a raise and a call in front of me. I moved in, the original raiser, the same guy I doubled through earlier, folded, and Nick Ducey thought and thought, and then finally called with pocket sevens. On the flop, off came a 7. However, there were three diamonds on board, and I had the K. I drew out twice. First, a king came on the turn, and then a diamond came on the river. I eventually busted Nick with only about 15 minutes to go before we quit for the day.



After this second double-through, I was virtually unstoppable the rest of the day. I steadily built my stack, and when the day ended, I had accumulated $39,025 in chips. That is the most I have ever had after day one in the entire 24 years I have played in the championship event. I give Ashleigh, in particular, credit for this. If she had not kept me so loose and relaxed, I almost certainly would have busted out.



Day two for me was not quite so relaxing. I drew a very tough table, and the biggest stack at my table, more than $80,000 in chips, was owned by a very tough French player, Philippe Boucher. He was on my immediate left, which made it even worse. When one of the short-stacked players went out, he was replaced by Allyn Jaffrey Shulman. Now, anybody who reads this magazine knows that Allyn is the wife of our beloved Chairman and CEO Barry Shulman. Barry, of course, was long gone before day two began. I had not played with Allyn in quite a while. In fact, the last time was on a Card Player cruise when she was, let's say "feeling no pain." She did not play at all like I expected. She came to the table with a decent stack of chips, and slowly ground out steady additions to her stack – without playing any major all-in pots. I was very impressed with her play. She was extremely solid, made all the right moves, and was one tough cookie. On one of the breaks, I told her observing hubby, Barry, that she was playing the best I had ever seen her play. Barry was like a mother hen watching one of her chicks. He had given her some expert coaching and it was working. I avoided playing any major pots with her, and we both survived the day in relatively good chip position. I had $60,500 and Allyn had $57,700. As fate and the poker gods would have it, we drew the same starting table for day three. Both of us were still at the same table when we "made the money," which took a long time to happen because they started going round for round with about two tables remaining before the money. Round for round is a new concept that was started this year. With the big fields and attempts of some players to stall right before the money point, the Rio decided to go round for round at each table. That meant that everybody had to go through both blinds at least once. If the money spots were not determined after one round, a second round was started – after the first round was completed at all tables. Anybody who went out in the same round got to share the money spots. For example, if there were two payouts and four players got eliminated, these four players would divide the two money spots between them.



After the second round – it took two rounds to decide the payoffs – all hell broke loose. So many players busted out so quickly that they actually had to hold up the tournament so that they could catch up with the players, consolidate tables, and make sure that the right players got paid. It took a long time. Later in the day, my table broke, and both Allyn and I had survived and went on to hopefully greener pastures. I'll have more on my personal saga and other WSOP tidbits in my next column, where you can join Allyn and me in the winner's circle.



Tom McEvoy is a representative of PokerStars.com. He also is the voice of ProPlay, a new and innovative way to learn winning poker strategy. Find out more at www.ProPlayLive.com/tommcevoy.