Y'all got Barbara's story a few days ago. This is mine. Enjoy.
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June 18, 2012
Heading to Vegas for the World Series Of Poker, I was feeling good. Earlier in the year, I had won nearly a thousand bucks at tournament at Hollywood Park, and just last week I played a few hours at Hustler and walked away with over $250. According to my records, my poker bankroll was up to $1824.
I returned to L.A. yesterday $393 in the hole.
So how did I manage to lose $2217 playing poker for 4 days? Turns out, it wasn’t hard at all.
THE SENIORS’ EVENT
Having just turned 50, I wanted for once in my life to be the youngest guy at the table, so I entered the $1000 Seniors’ Event. I lasted 30 minutes. On the forth hand, I lost 90% of my chip stack when my flopped a set of 6s fell to a flopped a set of queens. Ouch.
Still, I enjoyed the quirkiness of the seniors’ event. There were over 4100 players, setting the record for the largest poker tournament with a single start date.
At the beginning of the event, the WSOP trotted out an 85-year-old Hall of Famer named Oklahoma Johnny Hale. Despite this being an international event, he insisted we begin by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. He almost got the words right. Then he read the names of recently deceased poker players and started to cry. It was touching.
The tournament ended this afternoon with Dennis Phillips (who finished 3rd in the Main Event 3 years ago) coming in 2nd, and old pro Hoyt Corkins finishing 4th. The winner was a woman named Allyn Jaffrey Shulman, whose husband Barry and stepson Jeff own CardPlayer Magazine and have each won WSOP bracelets. She won over $600,000, though I think the real winner of the seniors’ event was whoever was renting all the power scooters.
THE AFTERNOON DEEPSTACKS
Every afternoon for 3 days straight, I entered the $235 2pm Daily Deepstack.
Last year, I played this event against a field of 800 and finished 85th. Sadly, only 83 cashed. Soooo close.
This year, the fields were enormous. Nearly 1300 on Thursday, 1380 on Friday, and 1450 on Saturday. First place for each day was listed around $49,000, $52,000, and $54,000 respectively.
I never came close, lasting a mere 4 hours on my best day. My failure was a combination of being card-dead, sitting to the right of the most aggressive players, and making several mistakes. Lost $705 in the process.
Still I love these tournaments. At one point, I sat next to Harold Angle, an 80-year-old who won the Seniors’ Event in 2010. Nice man. Wore his gold bracelet. Confused his $1000 chips with $100 chips.
CASH GAMES
After getting my ass kicked in tournaments, I decided to switch to cash games. Historically, I’ve won much more money playing cash games than playing in tournaments. I lost $112 at the Palms, $120 at the Rio’s main room, and $280 at the WSOP’s cash tables.
THE VEGAS EXPERIENCE
Outside of the WSOP, I did have a few fun times. Hung out with Pepper Street regular Nick Bognar one night and had breakfast Allen Ruby one morning. I spent an evening at Frankie’s Tiki Room, where I collected a few souvenir tiki glasses and partied with 3 burly, tattooed rockabilly chicks from Albuquerque. (Two were nurses, one a paramedic.) I spent some time at the Pinball Hall of Fame, and went downtown to see a stage version of Trey Parker’s “Cannibal: The Musical.” I also decided that the Gold Coast was a bland but decent place to stay, priced a third cheaper than the Rio next door.
Foodwise, I ate mostly buffets though I did try the fried chicken at Flavor Flav’s House of Flavor. Pretty gross. His dipping sauces include flavors like Strawberry Daiquiri and Margarita.
I wanted to try a steakhouse I had heard about, but after a couple days of poker, I just walked around muttering to myself, “You play so bad, you don’t deserve no fuckin’ steak.” And I didn’t.
SO NOW WHAT?
I plan to lick my wounds, rebuild my bankroll, and go back next year. I’ll probably skip the bracelet events until I cash at a deepstack, and maybe stay at a play with a nicer pool. And maybe, just maybe, I’ll play good enough to justify that steak.
