$50,000 H.O.R.S.E. — Part I

The World Series of Poker is a tough time financially for most professional poker players. The amount spent on buy-ins can easily exceed $100,000. It’s rumored that one main-event champ spent close to $250,000, with only two cashes totaling less than $26,000. Gabe Kaplan actually wanted to bet any players who wanted to bet that they would lose money on tournaments during any given WSOP.

In order to win money, you need multiple deep cashes or one good final-table finish — probably first, second, or third. Otherwise, you can expect to take a hit during the WSOP, unless you play in the side games, which I generally don’t, since I just don’t have time for them. (I think I played twice, for two small wins.)

All of this was going through my mind as the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event drew near. Should I play? Should I pass? Should I try to get staked?

I knew that I was playing extremely well, and, as I said in my last few columns, was only one hand away from “glory” in many tournaments. Money was tight, but if I won, that would change. Not only that, but a win in a tournament of this caliber is exactly what I need to propel my career to the next level. I decided that I had to play.

To lower my fluctuation as well as give myself someone to root for if I got eliminated, I traded with a few players, as I had done last year. Scotty Nguyen was an obvious choice, as I traded with him last year and he won. This year, he missed the money by three or four — close. Next, I had a standing save with Chau Giang and Freddy Deeb, and both of them made the money, finishing seventh and 14th, respectively. And, I chose David Chiu, and he finished 12th.

It seems that I’m pretty good at picking winners. Oh, yeah, I traded with one donkey — I mean, player — named Max Pescatori, and he didn’t even come close. Oh well, at least I charged him 7 percent for 6 percent of me. (I did have more chips, as we traded an hour or so into the event, but the juice was obviously for my superior playing ability.) To be fair to my paisan, he did pay me $10,000 when he won his bracelet last year, as we had a $10,000 bracelet save.

Anyway, I have never been one to go around and ask people to stake me. I flat-out wouldn’t know what to say. I mean, I turn enough guys down, so I guess I should know, but asking just doesn’t come natural to me. So, I was happy when a friend from a former life contacted me and said that he’d like to stake me in some events.

I told him that I didn’t want to give up any of my action, but since the H.O.R.S.E. buy-in was so large ($50,000), I’d be willing to be staked in that. He said that was kind of high, but that he’d be willing to either stake me completely and give me 50 percent, or put up $25,000 for 25 percent. I told him that either would be fine, and he said that he’d see how he did in the meantime and let me know.

I woke up early and showed up on time for the H.O.R.S.E. event. It was actually the first event all year for which I’d shown up on time, and it turned out that they delayed starting the thing for more than an hour, hoping to pick up more players. You see, ESPN, in their ultimate wisdom, decided not to televise the second-most prestigious poker tournament in the world, and it was killing the number of entrants.

To my surprise, my friend wasn’t around, so I tried calling him. I left him a message that he had an hour to call me back or he’d have to wait for next year. About an hour into the event, my phone rang, and my caller ID told me it was him. By then, I was up about 20,000 in chips, and was at a good table. I didn’t know what to do. What would you do?

This is what’s called a cliffhanger, so you’ll have to wait until the next issue to see what I did.