FULL TILT POKER BLOG

#453 – WSOP Notebook #26 – Mixed [Up] Hold ‘Em, Part II – Aussie and Harriet

Posted by Editor | Filed under Me in live tourneys, WSOP 2008

[written June 25 from the notebooks of June 2]

7:10 PM – The player in Seat 1 was born in the U.S. but lives in Australia and he’s talking about how it is impossible make a living of playing poker in Australia. “They have a big rake and a time charge.”

Everyone groans. Another player mentions that he seems to run into Australians wherever he goes, especially when he’s traveling in Central and South America.

Seat One: “Yeah, Australians go all over. I don’t know why they like to travel so much but they do.”

The dealer doesn’t miss a beat. “It’s probably to get away from the rake.”

9:20 PM – Eli Elezra is playing props at the table right behind me with some high-stakes player I don’t recognize. This guy keeps complaining how boring tournaments are. Then he starts complaining how boring the props are.

10:15PM – I pick up a bunch of chips during LHE after a dirty hand with Barry Shulman. I’m getting frustrated, getting no cards. I tried to take advantage of hardly ever playing a hand by raising in the Limit Hold ‘Em with J-6o. It’s Barry’s big blind. He calls. The flop is A-5-2. I bet and he calls. I figure he’s got an ace – or something like a pocket pair and he’s not willing to concede that I have an ace – so I’m caught. The turn is a four which gives me a gutshot straight draw. He checks and I also check. Then I hit the miracle three on the river giving me a six-high straight with a board of A-2-3-4-5. He checks, I bet, and he naturally calls thinking we’re splitting the pot. I sheepishly turn over my J-6.

10:40 PM – Thomas “Thunder” Keller sits to my right. For those of you relatively new to poker, Keller was one of the very first of the young players at the beginning of the internet era who struck World Series gold. Thomas is from Arizona and was rumored at one point to have all the large denomination chips from the poker room at Casino Arizona in the trunk of his car. He started playing tournament poker in 2003, winning a big No-Limit Hold ‘Em tournament at the Bellagio, and then a World Series bracelet in 2004. After that he seemed to disappear. His nickname was Thunder and he was a rotund man with a distinctive beard. I tried once without success to contact him, just to answer the question, “Where did you go?”

Now he’s back, and I recognize him from the beard, but he appears to have lost at least 100 pounds. Someone else at the table mentions he should consider getting a new nickname.

10:52PM – Phil Laak sits down to my left. After he wins a No-Limit hand with mediocre cards that miss the flop but hit great cards on the turn and river, someone jokes, “You’re going to have to teach me the secret to No-Limit someday, Phil.”

Laak responds: “The secret is that you have to hit your hand. Guys who don’t get that wash out of the game.”

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