FULL TILT POKER BLOG

#178 – WSOP #27 – Friends and Enemies, Lovers and Fighters, Part I

Posted by Editor | Filed under Jennifer Creason, My family, Phil Gordon, Phil Hellmuth, Razz, WSOP

I just arrived back at my room after spending a miserable Father’s Day, followed by three very interesting hours in the Amazon Room.

I hated being in Las Vegas on Father’s Day. Not so much that I needed some affirmation from my kids but because I miss them and Jo Anne and feel I’m letting them down by being here, or letting them down if I’m here and don’t accomplish enough.

It’s almost like I spent the day punishing myself. I played badly in Full Tilt’s 100-Seat Guarantee tournament, then played well in about four tournaments and was abused in every one. It took me eons to finish my BLUFF column. I’m way behind on the Hellmuth profile. I have a zillion entries in this blog to catch up on.

And every time I look at Google’s home page, with its Father’s Day logo adorned with a dad lounging by the pool inside one of the “O”s and a kid splashing around in a snorkel and goggles, I feel like I want to cry.

When I’m in Vegas, I wish I was home. When I’m home, I wish I was in Vegas.

It gets even more complicated than that. When I’m writing, I want to be playing. When I’m playing, I think I should be writing. When I’m playing and want to write about what happened, it’s hard to find the time to write it.

So I finally make it into the Amazon Room at 1:05 AM, having stayed completely away from the tournament on Father’s Day. Of particular interest is the end of the first day of the $3,000 No-Limit Hold ‘Em, where Phil Hellmuth is still alive and I know he has chips. It is also the end of Day 1 of the $1,500 Razz.

As I walk toward the back of the Amazon Room to the Hold ‘Em, I see Phil Gordon walking toward me.

Wait, I thought Phil had chips. He looks tired. I begin apologizing but he cuts me off.

“No, I’m still in. I’ve been between 13 and 15 big blinds for like 9 hours. I’ve been all in with the worst of it 4 times. But I’m fine now. I’ve actually got a few chips.”

I see on one of the video monitors that there are 211 players left. Wait, that’s Razz. Every night, it takes me a little while to orient myself to which events are at what stages and where.

Richard Brodie is at Table 44, Seat 1.

There are 95 players left in the Hold ‘Em and they pay 81.

As I pass by Razz on the way back, I pass by the familiar cowboy hat of Andy Bloch. But it’s not Andy under that hat but a woman. I’m not close enough to see her but I figure someone else just happens to have the same hat. Maybe they bought it from the same place as Andy after seeing him wearing it, or maybe it’s a coincidence. I see Bloch across the room near the No-Limit event, hatless. Unfortunately, he is not playing.

Oh, it’s Jennifer Creason, Andy’s fiancé. She’s playing the Razz event. Andy told me he watches from a distance because he feels that she thinks he’s critiquing or critical or her play; he isn’t doing that and doesn’t want her to feel insecure so he stays close enough to be supportive but far enough away not to affect her. (Joe Reitman has told me the same thing about being around the Amazon Room when Annie Duke is playing late at night, especially when she is on short chips. He doesn’t want to be there for any other reason but he can’t even really watch. He wants to be supportive and be the ride home if things go bad. So he’s just in limbo. Maybe I’m doing my family a favor abandoning them like this. Yeah, that’s the ticket.)

Jen was doing alright earlier but her stack has been dwindling.

Back to No-Limit Hold ‘Em, Perry Friedman is at Table 8, Seat 2. It looks like he has a bunch of chips and he is, of course, talking.

Table 3, Seat 6. Phil Hellmuth, dressed in his black uniform. He sits very tall at the table. He is a very tall man but it’s almost like he is a pillar at the table, a big, conspicuous presence on purpose.

On his big blind, the small blind raises. He acts like he is contemplating a reraise, looking at the other player while he counts out chips. Then he folds.

On the next hand, on his small blind, the player in Seat 8 limps and the he calls. The big blind checks. The flop is 2-8-Q, 3 suits. Phil bets, the big blind folds, the player in Seat 8 calls. The river is a ten, 4 suits. Phil checks and Seat 8 bets 10,000.

Phil takes out one of the earbuds. “You hit a ten on me? I think you got lucky and hit a ten.” Phil folds.

“I think you and I are going to play some big pots. You’ve been doing some crazy stuff. You’ll find I’m not an easy person to mess around with.”

The player in Seat 8 mutters, “I’m in awe.”

C’mon Phil. The guy had a queen. You had nothing.

Hellmuth is asked by a player he knows at the table behind him about his chip stack. “Whatever I have, I feel my chips are worth double because I play so solid. So I feel like I’m the chip leader.”

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