20 years ago today, I decided to take a shot at my second-ever WSOP event, after finishing 3rd in my first one
On June 6, 2005, I finished 3rd in the $1500 WSOP Limit Holdem event, out of 1049 entrants. I did not initially plan to play any events that year, despite living in Vegas.
After this finish, I emailed Interpoker, where I played a ton. I asked if they'd like to sponsor me to play the $3k Limit Holdem event, approximately one month later. Surprisingly, they said yes. I forgot if they dropped the money in my account, or if they directly bought me in (they could do either one in those days), but they paid for my entry, let me keep 100% of any winnings, and the only thing I had to do was wear Interpoker gear. Sweet!
One of my good friends, the Pokerstars player known as "Good Eats!", was supposed to drive in and play the event as well. He wasn't sponsored like I was, but was going to enter on his own dime. However, he lagged getting out of LA, and realized he'd miss too much of the event, so he chose not to come.
I sat down on the morning of July 3, 2005, and this unknown gentleman was in the seat next to me:
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...3DIgDZeLIXZQ&s
He had on a very expensive watch, and expensive looking clothes. I knew the dude had to be loaded. He said his name was Dan. Nobody knew who he was at that point.
I proceeded to become the bane of his existence at the table. Not only was he getting coolered, but I was rivering him in unlikely spots. For example, when he finally thought he got me after losing to me every hand, I raised the river and beat him with 777 over his flopped 666. There were at least 4 hands where we put in a lot of action, and I ended up winning -- all of which I was substantially behind at some point.
As we neared the first break, Dan said, "Well, I'll look on the bright side. If this were a no limit event, you'd have busted me 4 times over, and I'm still here."
He wasn't here much longer. I proceeded to bust him shortly after that.
Then the break came, and the blinds went up again. Given that early stages of limit holdem tournaments don't mean much, it just took a few hands and I was back to starting stack. Ugh.
Anyway, I had an up and down affair that day. They were paying just 36 spots out of 406 -- just 8.8% of the field! I think they wanted to pay by full table, so since it was 9 handed, they decided to pay 36 instead of 45. Back in those days, a cash meant something! (For this reason, it was rare for even the most prolific players to cash more than 7 times in a series. Also, there were only about 40 events total.)
At dinner break, I had an average-ish stack. One of the chip leaders was Jason Steinhorn -- the guy who finished 2nd to my 3rd place at the $1500 Limit Holdem event. Steinhorn was not a pro player, but rather a good amateur who otherwise worked in Silicon Valley. The poker media was all over Steinhorn during dinner, interviewing him about how it feels to be chip leader in this event after finishing second at the $1500. They were asking him how confident he was that he could win this one. I walked by, and they didn't even notice me. I felt a bit shitty seeing that. Then I thought about it again, and said to myself, "It's still early, I have average chips, I can easily still win this."
The days were a lot longer back then.. We started early, and finished late. We went long enough to where the money hit. I had to sweat it out, as I was one of the short stacks with 38 left. I survived that bubble, then ran it up to finish the day 7th in chips out of 25. Steinhorn, the guy I envied at dinner break, chunked it off and didn't even come close to cashing. That's limit holdem for ya.
Play would complete the next day. It was unknown who would make the final table, since there were 25 players left, so it was hard to invite people from out of the area to come in and watch. My parents, only 300 miles away in LA, couldn't come anyway, as my mom had a bad virus and could barely get out of bed.
I went back to my apartment and went to bed. I felt a strange determination to win this one, almost like I had to.
I talked to my mom, who as I said was sick, but still felt okay enough to talk on the phone. I told her that I had to win this, that even 2nd place would be a letdown. She told me not to think that way, because it was setting myself up for frustration. I said, "I already finished 3rd last month. I don't want 3rd. I don't want 2nd. I want to win this one. I need to win it."
Continued next post...
