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#249A – London Journal #15A – Million Dollar Cash Game #1 – Waiting for Action, Action for Waiting
It’s about 2:30 PM as I write this. Cards have been in the air for 30 minutes. Because of the complexities of the production and the uniqueness of the game, they’ve played under 10 hands. But there has been some ACTION, and the promise of A LOT MORE.
Initial lineup:
1-Tony G
2-Erik Seidel
3-Allen Cunningham
4-Andy Bloch
5-Chris Ferguson
6-Phil Ivey
7-Patrik Antonius
8-Erick Lindgren
Each player is starting with $100,000 in chips, for which he paid in cash. [Subsequent note: as I point out in later blogs, Patrik and Phil bought in for $200,000, but this will be clear when I give chip counts later.] Purples are $100, blues are $500, reds are $1,000, and blacks are $25,000. They are playing no-limit hold ‘em, $300-$600 blinds, $100 ante.
I say hello to Tony G, introduce myself, and tell him that I used to work for him; my previous blog was with Pokerworks.com, a site he owns. Erick Lindgren jokes, “So how was it to work for a maniac?” I tell Erick, truthfully, “Tony was the perfect boss.” Today is the first time we’ve met.
1:30 PM – There is intense discussion about the rules – under what conditions players can speak about their hands, show their cards. They ARE allowed to put in a $1,200 straddle.
Andy Bloch, before walking to his seat, hands me a large white plastic bag. “Can you hold this?” I imagine there is at least $100,000 in this bag. Hot dog! “What’s in it?” I ask. “Camera, cell phone.” I put it in my backpack for safekeeping and took a peek inside. Unfortunately, he was telling the truth. Although Bloch has been bragging to me about how great his iPhone is ….
Erick Lindgren leaves the set and returns wearing a different shirt, substituting a blue striped dress shirt for a tee shirt. “They said with the shirt I had on that I didn’t look like a had a hundred thousand.”
1:41 PM – Phil Ivey, who I heard had a 7 AM tee time, has just entered the building. He immediately sits at Seat 6 and notices that the glass at each player’s space (which covers the hole-card camera) is reflective. It may be possible for players to see each other’s hole cards. This is not an easily fixable production problem, if it’s fixable at all, though the players quickly agree among themselves they won’t spy as their opponents look at their hole cards.
The table is set up like a blackjack table, with the players in a semi-circle, facing the dealer. I suppose it’s better from a production standpoint – well, it’s cheaper because you don’t have the same need for roaming cameras and need cameras focused on only 180 degrees rather than 360 – but from a pure poker sense, I don’t like it.
After Lindgren wins the first hand, there is a brief delay as they fine-tune the production. Tony G suggests, “How about if you fold a hand, you have to put a thousand into the pot?” There follows some small-talk about the possibility that Erik Seidel, who has refused to participate in the developing discussions about prop betting, might be too tight for this game.
Then Erick catches Phil Ivey’s attention and says, “Phil, as Andy was walking to the hotel the other day, he saw two guys having sex in an alley.”
Andy: “It wasn’t an alley. It was just … behind the hotel.”
Phil: “Are you sure it was two guys?”
Andy: “Well, I didn’t watch for long enough to be 100% sure.”
It appears between hands 1 & 2 there is some agreement about a prop bet on each flop. (This is where the players divide the suits and agree to pay each other money based on the composition of the flop. But each player has to call it before the next card, so the only actual edge is if an opponent is “sleeping the props.” Or if one of the players doesn’t like being stuck a bunch of money – I think it’s $2,500 per flop here – without actually losing any hands.)
Tony G and Erick are a team taking one suit. Phil Ivey has a suit. Patrik Antonius has a suit. And, surprise, Andy Bloch has a suit.
It takes exactly two hands for the first big-pot showdown. Ivey, on the river, tosses in a $25,000 chip. Erik Seidel calls him and wins the pot with pocket aces.
By 2:10 PM, just 10 minutes in, they’ve played four hands and there’s been a lot of action. Being so used to watching tournaments and writing about tournaments, you forget – and I forget – that there’s a certain pace in tournaments because stacks are limited, blinds go up, etc. Lots of guys are seeing lots of flops, and those are making the pots automatically large. There’s $1,700 in the pot before anyone enters it, and if someone raises to $1,800 and gets two calls, that boosts it to $5,000-$6,000. If two players are in at the turn, that bet is going to be at least $10,000. Not at all like the beginning of a tournament where everyone has ridiculous amounts of chips compared to the blinds and bets.
At 2:15 PM, there is a delay because the props – which Erick and Tony seems to be picking up on every hand – are messing with the production company’s chip counts. Henceforth, the props will continue (though Andy Bloch seems to have had enough of it) but Phil Ivey will keep tab.
During the break, I ask Erik Seidel if his aces have been the biggest pot so far. “Yeah, but I think one of the prop bet guys is ahead of me.”
