Reno

I’ve always liked Reno. I almost moved there when I was 21 to play at the Peppermill, which had the best $20-$40 games and the hottest cocktail waitresses I’ve ever seen. It’s the site of my highest World Poker Tour finish (15th, sadly enough), in 2004. I would have made the final table had Eskimo Clark not made the dumbest call I’ve ever seen with A-K. We were the two chip leaders, and I was trying not to clash with him, but when he was raising every pot, it was kind of hard not to reraise with pocket queens. Oh well…

My friend Lisa Wheeler, of GreasieWheels Productions, called and asked if I’d attend Jennifer Harman’s charity event for the National Kidney Foundation. She offered to comp my suite and my airfare to and from Reno. Since the World Poker Challenge was being held right after the charity tournament, and they were adding $50,000 to the second-to-last event, I decided to go. It was going to be a tight squeeze, as the Bay 101 tournament was right after the main event in Reno, but I figured it out. I just went straight to San Jose from Reno.

Reno was as beautiful as ever, with snow on the mountains and air so fresh and clean that I wish they could bottle it. Also, the Grand Sierra is a nice resort. It’s like a time warp back to the Vegas of the ’70s. The decor, the pricing, the cheap rooms, the liberal comps, and the abundant spots for fine dining are what first made Vegas the place to be.

There was a dinner and a meet-and-greet party that were both great. The next day, the charity event took place with almost 300 players. I finished like 99th, which would normally be meaningless, but this was a team event, and the one point that I scored put my team over the top and into first place. When I asked what I had won, they showed me a bag with a Full Tilt shirt and hat in it! Wow!

The next day featured the $3,000 event, which had $50,000 added. It got the desired effect by drawing 118 players, compared to the main event ($5,000) two days later, which got only 28. There was a nice mix of players, too, with many locals to go along with the traveling pros.

I did very well in the first few levels, building my chips up to about three times what I started with, before I had my first major confrontation. I had been very active, and a guy finally moved in on me. My gut reaction was to throw my A-J offsuit away, but as I figured out the odds, I realized that with the blinds and antes, I was getting just shy of 2-1 on my call.

I studied for a long time. A-J is not a hand that matches up well against anything but a pair of tens or lower, unless my opponent holds an ace with a 10 or lower, which I think is highly unlikely. An ace with a king or queen, and I’m almost a 3-1 dog; kings or queens, about 2.5-1; jacks, a little better than that; and any pair lower than that is close to a coin flip.

I finally got tired of trying to figure this out, and just decided to call. It was for only about a third of my stack, so it wasn’t going to hurt me much if I lost. He showed me exactly what I didn’t want to see, A-K. Aces were the only hand that could have me in worse shape.

I managed to nail a jack on the river and eliminate the poor guy (sorry, guy), and I was off to the races. I talked the hand over with Hoyt Corkins (who was at my table) later, and he thought it was close. I agree with him, but upon closer reflection, I think I made a bad call there. I read that he was strong, which meant that I was more than a 2-1 dog, so I wasn’t getting a good enough price.

As the dinner break grew nearer, I was one of the chip leaders, but my luck didn’t hold out. I lost a coin toss, and then a guy hit a one-outer to beat my pocket aces on the last hand before we broke. It was almost enough to take away my appetite and keep me from eating dinner — almost.

I came back from dinner real short, but scraped my way up. Then, a guy reraised me three times in a row when I had raised. The last time, I figured he had to have a hand, but I was getting too short to keep laying hands down. Besides, I don’t like being pushed around. I decided to take a stand with my pocket fives, and called.

He showed me pocket tens, and I figured the end was here. I’d already won one hand in this tournament when I was dominated, and I hadn’t done it twice in a long, long time. Well, I managed to do it again, so maybe my luck was really starting to turn.

Knowing that this tournament paid only nine spots and was extremely top-heavy, I went on the offensive. Within a few hours, I was third in chips with 13 players left. Then, James Van Alstyne got moved to my right. He had put one of the worst beats on me that I’ve ever had. We were heads up in a televised tournament. I limped with aces on the button and he made a big raise with A-10 offsuit. I reraised, and he went all in and managed to make a straight.

James made another genius, bonehead play here, but inasmuch as I’m out of room, I guess you’ll have to wait for the next issue to read about it. See you next time — same bat-time, same bat-channel …