Recently, I went to Monte Carlo to play in the
European Poker Tour Championship. It was a $10,000 buy-in tournament with almost 700 players and a first prize of €1.8 million (more than $2 million). I was excited to be there, and pumped up to play some great poker. But before we get to the tournament, I have to admit that I experienced the biggest loss of my life (check out my blog at PhilHellmuth.com) over there.
While I was walking through the lobby of the famous Hotel de Paris, I ran into Patrik Antonius and Phil Ivey. I am always looking for good energy, and I thought that it might be a good omen that the Hotel de Paris had PH logo hats and bathrobes. Ivey and Antonius were playing Chinese poker, which is like flipping coins, in that there isn't much skill involved in the game. I sat down and joined them, but requested that we play for
only $1,000 a point. When I was down 76 points, I asked to play for $2,000 a point. A few hours later, Antonius quit, and we went to Ivey's suite to order room service (they wouldn't serve us in the lobby) while we played. Things got ugly, and by 10 a.m., I was forced to quit, down a whopping $536,000! Ouch! The memory of it still hurts. I had to ask myself, why didn't I walk into the hotel 20 minutes earlier and miss the boys? This was the biggest loss of my life by almost five times; 10 years ago, I lost $110,000 of my own money. How could I lose that much money "flipping coins," while not even playing a game of skill? So much for the PH logo being a good omen, but I still could come out of this way ahead if I could finish in the final four in the
EPT Championship.
I showed up the next day for day one at 7 p.m. Of course, the tournament had started at 2 p.m., but I didn't seem to care. I was still shellshocked from the night before. At this point, I caught a break when the tournament directors couldn't find my seat number (I'm sure that they didn't expect anyone to be five hours late!), and they told me that I needed to play on day two, instead. I didn't care about catching a break, and told them I was ready to play right then and there, but I didn't complain (realizing on some level that I had caught a break). So, I walked back to my hotel with the thought of trying to cool myself down (and prepare myself mentally) to play the next day. I couldn't let the worst loss of my life by far stop me, could I? What was I made of? Was I a champion or a dog? It was time to show my mettle!
On day two, I showed up a mere 90 minutes late, but I was feeling much better. I had just donated $50,000 to charity ($25,000 to Doctors Without Borders and $25,000 to the Heifer Foundation). If I was going to go through so much money playing Chinese poker, the least I could do was donate 10 percent of that total to charity! I think that inspired me a bit; it certainly made me feel better about myself. I came in ready to play great poker, and win the tournament. I mean, why not have the biggest win of my life? As I navigated through the day, two bad things happened to me. First, I picked up K-K and ran into A-A. Then, I picked up Q-Q and ran into A-A. But, I still made it through the day.
Now, I will break down a key hand that came up the next day: With the blinds at $1,000-$2,000, I picked up K-K and made it $4,000 to go. Player A, right behind me, made it $12,000 to go. I looked at him and immediately thought, "He has pocket aces." But, I refused to believe that it could happen again. Twice in two days, no way! There is a word for it: impossible. I was moving all in for my last $60,000, period. So, I took an extra 30 seconds (I counted to myself) to sell my pocket kings, and then I announced, "I'm all in." My opponent jumped out of his seat and pulled his earphones off, and I knew that he had pocket aces. Could this really be happening? K-K, K-K, and Q-Q in two days, all going down to aces? Or, could I draw out? The flop was a good one, A
7
3
; I now had the flush draw with my K
. All I needed was a spade. After two blanks, I went crazy whining about my bad luck - kings, kings, and queens, and so on. The cameras rolled, and I displayed my full anger and frustration for European television. I told myself that even though I love Monte Carlo, how could I ever come back? I lost $536,000 to Ivey, and then I played way above the rim for two days and ran into this BS. Call me superstitious, but I crossed the border into Italy (by car) by 11 p.m. that very night!
Could I have folded my hand here? Yes, it would have been incredibly hard to do, but I could have been a hero and laid it down. However, I'm not looking back and thinking, "I should have folded." I'm looking back and believing that I didn't have too much choice. Is it so hard to fold K-K preflop that I didn't listen to my instincts? Yes, but maybe next time I can be a hero!
