World Poker Tour and 'Fluff'

Recently, 665 of us began play in the L.A. Poker Classic at Commerce Casino in L.A. This World Poker Tour event featured a $10,000 buy-in and a $1.6 million first-place prize. I was extra motivated to play my best poker, for several reasons. First, despite a pretty good track record, I have never won a WPT event, and the new players like to remind of that little fact. Second, I skipped this event last year, and I really regretted missing it--as it really is a "classic." Third, I had terrible results over in London in the Premier League Poker series of tournaments earlier in the month of February. And finally, after being at home with my wife and kids for seven straight weeks, my ego was feeling pretty beat up! After all, when I'm on the road, people swarm me for autographs and pictures (ego inflates), and when I'm at home, my kids think that I'm lame and my wife expects me to take out the trash (ego deflates). I really wanted to play great poker and show the world--and myself--that I could still do it.

On the flip side of the coin, I had some solid backup plans for the week. First, we had the Grammys on Sunday night, then we had a VIP booth at the Pearl concert (my favorite new band) on Monday night at the Viper Club in L.A., and finally, NBC wanted me to shoot commercials for the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship on Tuesday in Vegas. Although the "fluff"--attending the Grammys, partying with the band members at a concert, and the NBC commercial shoot, with jets and helicopters--would have been a lot of fun, my heart was into winning the tournament. I was into poker--all day, all week, all the time; just win, baby!

One of the rough things about a six-day poker tournament is that you're constantly exhausted. You wake up extremely tired, oftentimes with a headache, and under tons of stress. One mistake, one bad play, and you're gone! Imagine playing 10-hour days of poker - or longer - with no room for any errors, and the constant threat of elimination hanging over your head. Of course, it can be said that I was exhausted when I won my 10th World Series bracelet, and my 11th, and come to think of it, I was probably exhausted when I won all 11 of them! But, you fight through the exhaustion and the pain. You dig deep, and you find a way to play great no matter how you feel, and no matter what the conditions are.

Late on day five, another 11-hour day, we were finally down to seven players. We needed to get down to the final six to end the day and come back the next day on the big WPT stage. The seven remaining players were Phil Ivey, Nam Le, Scott Montgomery, Quinn Do, Wei Kai Chang, Charles "Woody" Moore, and I.

I had the chip lead with more than 4 million in chips. The blinds were 30,000-60,000 with a 5,000 ante per man, when I opened from the button for 250,000 with the Q 10. Woody moved all in for 840,000, so it would cost me 590,000 to call.

Then, the talking began. I asked Woody if he had a strong hand. He said, "Yes." Then, I asked him if he had a small pair or a medium pair. He said, "No." Then, he volunteered, "I have a big pair."

The tournament director then stepped in and said, "If that's true, we'll have to penalize you."

Woody then said, "Phil, you tricked me!"

This of course was not true at all, so I said, "You know that I didn't try to get you into trouble!" In fact, the reason that I started talking was to try to determine whether Woody was pocket kings strong, pocket nines strong, or maybe A-K strong. Oftentimes, if you can get your opponent to talk, you can glean some valuable information. In this case, Woody had crossed the line--because in tournament poker, you're not allowed to tell the truth about your hand--but no one thought that it was intentional.

After a while, I deduced that Woody probably had pocket jacks or pocket tens. So, I folded my hand, and Woody folded his hand facedown. No one at the table thought that Woody deserved a penalty, and the tournament director didn't ask to see his cards in order to try to enforce a 10-minute penalty. Interestingly, the pot was laying me exactly 2-to-1, and I could call only if I suspected that Woody had an underpair (like 9-9 or 8-8), A-K, or A-J. I wish that I had called him, as the very next hand, I picked up the A K one off the button, and Ivey picked up A-A on the button! If I had called and won with the Q 10, I would have gone to the final table with more than 5 million; instead, I lost 2.6 million to Ivey. I wound up making the final six with 2.3 million.