I stopped by the poker room at The Orleans in Las Vegas recently to meet a few friends and play some Chinese poker. We like to do this at The Orleans because regardless of how busy the room is (and it tends to be bustling), management always treats us well. It would be difficult to find a poker room with a floor staff that is friendlier and more energetic, not to mention competent.
Anyway, on this particular evening, our conversations tended to revolve around some of the winners at this year's
World Series of Poker, as the then current issue of
Card Player featured recaps of some of the events. The dealer at the time, Eric Narciso, then pointed out to us that the magazine had failed to make any note of the casino employees event. I asked him if he had played in the tournament, and he responded that he had taken the bracelet. This was no small feat, either, as the tournament featured 1,039 players, with a first-place prize of just more than $104,000. Immediately, I recognized that this may be my best shot to write a column about winning a tournament, so I asked Eric if he would mind sharing some of the details of his victory.
Mark Gregorich: What were your thoughts and strategies going into the event?
Frederick (Eric) Narciso: Although I expected the field to be soft overall, I knew there would be a lot of good players, too. I was hoping to play tight early on and find a good spot to commit all of my chips and win. Then, I would have a stack and be able to gamble a little more and push my weight around.
MG: And this strategy obviously worked?
EN: I was up and down the entire first day, but was close to average near the end of the day. At that point, it seemed like most of the players just wanted to make it to day two, so I started playing real aggressively to take advantage of their tight play. Then a key hand came up, not because it was such a big pot, but because my tournament life was on the line. With $300-$600 blinds, the cutoff raises to $2,000, and I move all in for $8,000 with A-J suited on the button. I wouldn't have minded winning the pot right there - plus, I may in fact have the best hand. But, I knew I was in bad shape when the small blind instantly goes all in behind me. Then, the cutoff mucks Q-Q faceup. I was up against pocket kings, flopped a flush draw, and spiked an ace on the river to stay alive. This was one of only two times the entire tournament that I was all in with the worst hand.
MG: So, now you had a good stack at the end of day one.
EN: I did, and this stack enabled me to make some moves and take down a few easy pots. For example, I played a hand against an older woman with a ton of chips. I'm not sure how she got them, considering that she played weak-tight poker. She limps in from early position, and I decide to play any two cards from the button. I actually had a good hand, though, Q
8
, and I limp, as well. Both blinds check. The flop comes 10-9-2 with two hearts and a diamond. Everyone checks, and the turn is the K
, giving me a flush draw to go with my gutshot. The small blind bets $3,000 (about the size of the pot), and I call. The river is a heart, putting up the wrong three-flush, and he checks. I bet $4,500, and he quickly folds. Stuff like this helped me make it to day two with $30,000 in chips, which was in the top five.
MG: And day two obviously went well.
EN: It did, although I lost a big pot on the very first hand with Q-Q against A-K. This left me with $20,000, and I played tight for the next couple of hours. Then the blinds got real high, and I put the "red zone" strategy into play, and just started shoving in preflop to try to build up my stack. It was near the bubble, and everyone else was playing tight. As my stack grew, I was able to use the chips I'd won by stealing the blinds to play when I did get called, and sometimes I got lucky and won. When I lost a pot, I was able to rebuild my stack by picking up the blinds a few more times. This continued all the way until the final table.
MG: Were there a few key hands at the final table?
EN: Sure. A big hand for me came when I won a race with pocket sixes against A-K. This doubled me up to about $700,000, slightly less than the chip leader. The chip leader was basically just sitting there letting the other players knock each other out, but fourhanded, we played a pot that more or less decided the tournament. Between us, the chip leader and I had about 70 percent of the chips in the tournament when this hand happened: The chip leader, in the small blind, raised about three times the big blind. I was in the big blind with A-J. I decided to move all in, for a couple of reasons. First, I wanted to show this guy that I was in charge of the table, not him. Also, I figured that since the two of us had most of the chips, he couldn't call me without a huge hand, as he'd want to wait until the short stacks were busted before messing with me. I know it was pretty reckless, but he'd been waiting for players to bust out all day, so why change now? Anyway, he thought for a while and made a gutsy call with 9-9. I flopped a jack, and that was pretty much the tournament.
MG: Do you think he made a good call, given that he had the best hand?
EN: It was good in that he had the best hand, but in my opinion it was a bad tournament decision, with the other two players being short-stacked.
MG: Any other comments on the tournament?
EN: A few of us from The Orleans played in the event. Suzie McBaine, one of our tournament directors, who finished 61st,
talked hands with me during breaks and gave me moral support throughout the tournament. My homie Jeremy didn't cash, but he sweated me at the final table till 6 a.m. Also, my friend Helen happened to deal me the winning hand of the tournament. She told me afterward that she didn't want to deal to me, as she was afraid I'd take a bad beat and bust out. She was more nervous than I was.
MG: When a lot of people have a big score in a tournament, the first thing they do is quit their jobs and become professional players. You didn't go that route, though.
EN: It is a lot of money, but $100,000 isn't like $500,000 or a million. I decided to buy a house and get a good accountant to help save me on taxes. Don't get me wrong, I wanted to jump right into the $200-$400 game at Bellagio, but I decided to do the smart thing and put away all but $10,000, which I could use as a bankroll. In fact, I didn't even play for a week after winning the tournament, because I was afraid it would go to my head and I'd blow it all back right away. The next weekend, I chopped up a nightly tournament at Bellagio, and later I finished fifth in the championship event at the
Orleans Open.
MG: What are your future plans in poker?
EN: Before I moved to Vegas, I played medium-stakes limit hold'em in Chicago, mostly $10-$20 and $20-$40 limits. I'll probably start playing more of those games here on a more consistent basis, as I've done well in that range and I'm comfortable with the stakes. I want to keep playing tournaments, too, and hopefully I can finally play and win a $10,000 event in the near future. I'm keeping my job, though, so I can come back next year to defend my title!
Eric invites you to visit him on MySpace at www.myspace.com/quietlike.
Mark Gregorich has played poker professionally in Las Vegas since 1995. He is regarded as one of the top Omaha
eight-or-better players in the world, and contributed to that section in Doyle Brunson's Super System II. Mark is primarily a cash-game player, but occasionally tosses some dead money into the prize pools of major tournaments.
