Poker on the High Seas

This was the first time that we fought for the buy-ins for the WPT Season Pass while on the high seas. We were on the Royal Caribbean’s luxurious ocean liner the Mariner of the Seas.

This WPT Boot Camp was actually a joint venture with Card Player Cruises. (The WPT Boot Camp in Montana and the Todd Brunson Montana Challenge over Labor Day weekend also will be a joint venture.) Linda Johnson and Jan Fisher run several of these a year, and they really know what they are doing. They have a very friendly, knowledgeable staff that could rival any cardroom’s in the world, and actually surpass most! The atmosphere is laid-back and fun, and virtually everyone on the trip became friends by the end of the voyage.

If you’re not familiar with the Battle for the Season Pass, it is a teaching boot camp like the others that the WPT holds. But, it is geared more to hanging out with the pros and playing in a few tournaments. The pros included Hoyt Corkins, T.J. Cloutier, Kathy Liebert, Clonie Gowen, and Gavin Smith, as well as the instructors for the WPT Boot Camp — Nick Brancato, Rick Fuller, Jules Leyser, and Crispen “You Better Pay Me My Freakin’ Money, Jamie” Leyser. The main event had a prize pool of only about $100,000 (only $100,000 … lol), as attendance was down due to the economy and the fact that this was the first time that it was held on a ship, but I’m sure that it will catch on and the numbers will be back up in no time.

The main event started out great for me. By the end of the day, I had the chip lead by a nice margin. Then, I got mixed up in a major pot that I usually wouldn’t have. One player had been calling about half of my raises. Granted, I was raising quite a bit, but half is still a lot.

Then, the player who was in the big blind went broke, so there was no small blind for the next hand. Everyone passed to me on the button, so there was just me and the calling station in the big blind. Before I looked, I said to myself, “Carmine, if you raise, he’s gonna reraise you.” I’m not sure how I knew this, but I did. I’m also not sure why I call myself Carmine, but that’s another story.

Anyway, I wasn’t gonna raise without a big hand here, because I was sure that he was gonna re-pop me. Well, I looked down at pocket nines, and that’s big enough for Carmine. So, I raised, and waited to see how much the reraise was gonna be. Sure enough, it was a big one, and I thought that he was probably light, so I reraised more than half of my remaining chips. I’m obviously committed here. Even if he turned over pocket aces, I was getting 5-1 to call if he moved in.

He asked for a count, then asked the dealer to pull in the last bets. Then, he stalled another 20 seconds or so, and declared himself all in. I quickly called, and he just sat there for another seven or eight seconds, waiting for me to turn over my hand. Remember, he moved in and I called, so he’s supposed to turn over his hand first. Well, he took so long that I thought he must really have a piece-of-dung hand, so I went ahead and turned my hand over first, trying to be nice. This guy then turned over pocket aces!

I mean, WTF? In a normal tournament, I would have had some choice words for this gentleman, but since it was a cruise, I just asked him what he was so embarrassed about in a half-joking manner.

This hand knocked me down to almost average chip position, but, never one to give up, I regained the chip lead in the final hour and a half. I started the next day with 144,000. The next player had about 100,000. This tournament paid only the final table, and the blinds would be going up fast, but I figured that I had an excellent chance to win it.

The poker gods had other ideas. I held five big pair on day two, and every single time, someone had a bigger pocket pair. It was truly scary. I flopped a set of nines once, but my opponent made a straight with pocket kings.

After “The Dragon Lady” beat me with her pocket kings, I was down to less than 10,000. After rivering a set and stealing some blinds, I got it back to more than 160,000! Then, this hand came down. I’m still not sure that I played it right, so you can judge for yourself.

The blinds were 1,500-3,000 with a 300 ante. Now, a normal bring-in here would be between 7,000 and 12,000. Well, one lady kept making it 20,000 to go! And she was raising about half of the pots. Obviously, the whole table was slobbering to move in on the maniac. So, it was no surprise when she opened for 20,000 from the cutoff and the button shoved for a total of 61,000.

In the big blind, I looked down at pocket jacks. Wow. Now, I had only 3,300 invested here, but as I said, this lady was raising more than “Durrrr” on crack (just kidding, Durrrr), so it was hard to give her credit for having much (although she did have aces twice before when she got action). And I knew that the guy who pushed could have a small pair or even be as weak as A-9 or A-10; I wouldn’t blame him, as many times as she’d raised.

So, what should I do? Well, I study for a while, and my wife walks up (that should have been the tip-off to fold). I figure there’s more than 90,000 in the pot, so I don’t think I can throw this away. Should I just call? No way. This would give Miss Maniac almost 4-1 to take a flop with a marginal hand. I decide that I must push here, and try to isolate; in goes my 160,000.

Well, at least this lady knew poker etiquette; she called and instantly turned over pocket aces. If that wasn’t bad enough, the other guy showed the other two jacks! We were in worse shape than the Republican Party.

Oh well, at least I had a lot of friends, plenty of vodka, and a great cruise ship to console me. The rest of the trip was great. The highlight was a day at a 25,000-square-foot mansion in Puerto Vallarta that overlooked the Pacific, complete with a pool and a gaggle of servants. Viva Mexico, Card Player Cruises, and WPT Boot Camps!

Todd Brunson has been a professional poker player for more than 20 years. While primarily a cash-game player, he still has managed to win 18 major tournaments, for more than $3.5 million. He has won one bracelet and cashed 25 times at the World Series of Poker. You can play with Todd online at DoylesRoom.com or live at his tournament, The Todd Brunson Montana Poker Challenge, in Bigfork, Montana. Check his website, ToddBrunson.com, for details.