WSOP Main Event right around the corner

Pissed off to the max!!

I tried so hard today. I left it all on the table. As time passed by I fought harder and harder. I watched a lot of bad play, but not nearly as much as I see on a daily basis at the WSOP. As the players fell from 50 to 25, I couldn't seem to win a decent pot. In Hold'em I didn't win one pot in the first 30 minute session, then in the next session I won two antes, and one small pot where Bruno called my pre-flop raise, and then mucked on the flop.

Early on I made a mistake in the seven card stud that was costly. I called a raise with (8-4) 4 as the low card vs. Bruno's Q. On fourth street he broke off, I hit a 6, he bet, and I just called sensing weakness. I made up my mind that he had Q-J-10 and decided to pop him next street. He hit a 10 and bet (I hit a 2). Now I should have raised it up, or mucked my hand. But since a sense weakness, I should have popped him. Instead, I called the $20,000 bet, and he caught a Q (paired his door card), then after I folded, he showed me the suited K-2 in the hole. My raise would have worked!!

Two and a half hours later I made another stud mistake. I raised it up with a 10 up (without looking at my hole cards, as there were four 7's on board), and Thor Hansen called with a dead seven (of clubs). He hit a 5 and I checked in the dark. He bet, and I looked back at 10-2 in the hole. I should have popped him with my pair of tens, but I didn't. Instead I called, and now he caught an off suit 8 (7-8-5) and I checked again. Stupid!! I should have popped him on the turn and lead on fifth street. In any case, now he broke into 8-7-6-5, and now I checked again. I should have bet it!! Instead he bet, and I called. On the river, I checked, he bet, and I folded. He claimed that he had Ac-4c in the hole, and made a straight. I know he would have folded, had I simply bet out on fifth street. Still, one missed bet turned out to be pretty expensive (about $100,000), and sometimes my missed bets make me money.

It was amazing how I never won any big pots today (maybe two of three) in eight hours of play. It seemed like I always won early in the hand, not late. I had a couple of nice pots going where I did bet all the way and only got half, or was scooped. I took a tough beat from Bruno Fitoussi in stud 8/b (obviously he doesn't play that game in Paris!), and lost a coin flip to him in Hold'em. All-in-all it was almost as frustrating as being eliminated in the big one. Bottom line: I felt like I played great poker and gave myself a big chance, but then I never caught a rush. I never had over $450,000. I watched many lesser players go to one million or close to it while I hung in there for two days waiting for my rush. That is powerful though. When you can hang in there and give yourself a chance. That's all I can do.

Afterwards my wife and I watched a movie and chilled, and then I watched another movie with my youngest son. It is great to have my parents, wife and one of my sons here with me in Vegas. My parents faithfully "Sweated me" in the HORSE tournament all day long! I may take tomorrow off, depending on how tired I am. It is a good game for me, Omaha 8/b, but taking the day off entails hanging out with my family, taking the kids to the Luxor arcade, catching a show like "Love" or "Ka," and just generally chilling out.

Brutal day; Phil is a donkey!!!

Did I take the day off and hang out with my family? As tired as I was, I should have taken the day off. Instead I signed up, and slept in; way in. I woke up at around 4:00 pm, and went to the pool. After 30 minutes there-tanning on both sides-I thought that I should go to the Omaha 8/b tournament. I came in at 4:55 and still had $2,850 in chips, out of $4,000. This sparked quite a controversy!! It was reported on the internet, because I made a big deal out of the fact that I had so many chips. Then, out of nowhere, a floor man comes up and makes a big deal out of the fact that I have so many chips left! The other nine players at the table jump all over the floor man, none of them liking his tone. After all, it is Omaha 8/b, and you only play 50% of the pots you play in Hold'em. Just splitting the pots alone is time consuming, and the hands are so slow. Plus there were two 25 minute breaks, and finally, I came right before I had the $200 big blind. In any case, by 10:00 pm I had the chip lead, or close to it. I was playing a little bit too loose, and hitting the deck. Then it caught up with me. I didn't slow down enough and basically donked off a ton of chips! What really hurt was this: I missed the whole day with my family, only to eliminated at 1:00 am, ouch! If I'm going to miss my family, then at least I should make the end of the day. I'm sure being exhausted had something to do with it.

Another day I donked, another day I took the chip lead!!

Family or not, there was no way I was skipping the short handed no limit Hold'em tournament. I knew my wife and kids were leaving at 8:00 pm, and considering it was the $5,000 buy-in, I pretty much knew that I wouldn't see them much this day. Then I played like a donk and was all-in five or six times. I had a terrible attitude, whining and whining, and…more whining. Also, I insulted the other players, and acted like a jerk. There really is no excuse, the only positive was that I apologized profusely to the two players I grilled, and they knew not to take it personally. At dinner break at "Gaylords" with my parents and Greg Pierson (I also had Rolande De Wolfe, Joe Beevers, and a few others eat in the back room with me), I told everyone, "There is no way I can win today, no way I can even last another hour. I got tired and hungry 30 minutes before dinner break, and played like a super donkey, giving away almost all if my chips before making one world class call to recover 50% of them." The call went like this: one guy raised, three of us take the flop, me with Ad-8d, it comes 10s-2d-3c, then we all check. The turn is the ace of spades, the raiser bets out, and I call thinking that I may be beat already, but more likely that he has a spade draw or some sort. The last card was the 4s (10s-2d-3c-As-4s), I check, and the guy moves me all-in for my last $6,000! I sit there feeling like I cannot call, knowing that I donked off a bunch of chips over the last 25 minutes, but I cannot escape my read. I think he has nothing! My hands will not throw away the cards, so finally, I call. He says, "Jack high." Yikes, what a call! Now I donk off another $5,500 for no reason on the last hand with 10-3 off suit; dinner never came at a better time.

All that I cannot win BS, and I come back in playing on fire! I start with around $17,000 in chips. I bluff two pots in a row, once check raising the A-7-5 flop with 10d-9d (risking 70% of my chips on air!), then the very next hand I smooth call a raise with 8-8 in the small blind. I smooth called because I thought the guy in the big blind was a maniac ("Dario" is his name?), and sure enough, he re-raises. The original raiser folds, and I move all-in. "Dario" calls and shows A-K. He may be a maniac, and he may not be a maniac, but he did have a hand this time. I win the coin flip, and I'm up to $50,000. Two hours later I have $281,000 in chips with 100 players left, good for second place. Now I made the mistake of the trip: I didn't work out. Not because I was lazy, but because I thought sleep more important. Bad move. Even though I took savage beats the next day, I cannot help but wonder if things would have been different had I stuck to my tried and true method of the late night workout after making it to day two or three, sigh.

I do not want to tell any bad beat stories of my own, but ouch! I finished 30th against some of the worst players that I have ever seen. I played so great this day, but alas. I witnessed one guy raise it up with 10-4, get called by my buddy Morgan Machina, and then have the flop come down 6-4-2. He checks, Morgan bets 50% of his chips-about $30,000-and then the guy moves in! Morgan had to have his hand beat, but in this case, barely. Morgan rolls over 5-5, and the super donkey hits a four on the river! This is the guy that pretty much busted me later. Pierson makes it further than me, trying to win his own bracelet before I give him my next bracelet.

Go home and rest, not Phil!!

Instead of leaving the building and chilling out, I hopped into a $500 a point Chinese poker game with Eli Elezra and won $21,000. Still not satisfied, I hopped into another Chinese game and won another $10,000, with Pierson winning about $4,000 of it (he had half of me at $300 a point). Sleep yet? No, I then hopped into another game with Barry Greenstein and his girlfriend Alex. I was up another $25,000, and almost quit at 7:00 am. But no, why not stay and lose back $50,000 or more? We played until noon--I lost around $10,000 for the day--and I was forced to skip the $1,500 buy-in no limit tournament on Saturday because of it. I felt way out of control. Playing Chinese poker when I could try to beat another 3,000 plus players and really shake the poker world up? Not a good decision. I slept until 9:00 pm, and got up and did business for over two hours. I looked at new "Poker Brat" clothing company t-shirts, golf shirts, jackets, and hats. I looked at the specs for the new "Phil Hellmuth Fan Club" and spent time answering emails and phone calls. Someone has to oversee the empire, and the future billions!

Then I went for a late night workout, and got another 9 hours of sleep. I slept until 2:30, suntanned, and hopped into the $10,000 buy-in Pot Limit Omaha tournament. I hung in there, playing Chinese poker at every break (losing $24,500), and "Wi" bowling with my parents at dinner break (we sent out to "Fix" for five orders of their lobster tacos [delicious]). At 1:50 am-we were done for the day at 2:00--I went broke. I was so upset after one bad beat, that I went bonkers: I was swearing, whining, and berating the poor guy that played like a donk. I did apologize three times, but I have to learn to simply shut my mouth. What a surprise: guy plays like donk, crushes Phil, then Phil goes off on him, sigh. All too predictable, but simply too hard for me to change…

Do I head back to my hotel? I try to, but there is only one limo, and I share it with a nice French guy who insists on paying. Only problem is he is going to Bellagio. Anyone see the writing on the wall yet? So of course I run into the poker room and hop into a Chinese poker game for $2,000 a point. I'm steaming from the Omaha tournament, having won only one big pot for the last four hours, and I'm ready to gamble. Ralph Perry takes 50% of me, and I catch a $180,000 rush. Do I take the win? Nope, we stay until were up only $8,000, and finally Ralph has the good sense to quit. Not me, I continue to play at $1,000 a point until 8:45 am. Net profit $10,000, but what about the $1,000 buy-in no limit Hold'em with re-buys? What about winning bracelets?