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Posted by Editor | Filed under London 2008

I’m writing this in the Geneva airport. I’m on the way back to London from a day-trip to Switzerland to immerse myself in the culture of Swiss banking. I busted out of the HORSE event at WSOP-E just before midnight on Monday. What an experience that was!

Just 110 players entered and I bet you could name most of them. I was at Table 3, Seat 1, in the corner of the room. Here’s who I knew at my table: David Benyamine (Seat 3), Barny Boatman (Seat 6), Jens Voertmann (Seat 7), and Layne Flack (Seat 8). Chris Ferguson came by looking for his seat but, thank goodess, we were all full. Layne Flack was moved to another table but they replaced him with David Williams.

My foil from the Main Event, David “Devilfish” Ulliott, was one table away. He was wearing a tee shirt promoting his website. When Layne Flack jokingly asked him for a shirt, Ulliott said, “Don’t think we have one that will fit over your head.”

Bravo Devilfish! Maybe we didn’t hit it off at the Series because you were on the wrong side of the pond, or the Nevada desert is inhospitable to marine life. But THAT’S the type of humor I expect – and respect – from you. Not hearing someone sneeze three tables away and you acting like you’re saturated in muccus. Not mumbling about “fucking scribblers” – though, actually, several Full Tilt pros had a laugh when I shared that one with them.

Bravissimmo Devilfish.

The caliber of play was high and fast and I felt like I was at the top of my game. I was catching these experienced pros overplaying their hands with check-raises, forcing them into checking and calling when they were in a hand with me … which backfired on me every single time, it seemed, when they hit the river card they needed to pass me. I swear, they were spotting me the best hand on the flop and never having to pay.

With an hour to the dinner break, I was down to 500 chips. (We started with 10,000.) It was sick to be playing really well – or be really, REALLY sick to be deluded into thinking I was playing so well – and have absolutely everything go wrong.

Especially here. I spent $8,000 in entry fees to these two events, 5,500 miles from home. With 110 entries, when would I even get a shot at a bracelet with so few opponents? And with this caliber of opponents, where would I get so clear a chance to show what I could do? I felt ill.

But I dug in. I’ve seen phenomenal short-stack players like Jenner Harman and Annie Duke hunker down and just refuse to bust, so I know how.

When I had just 2,000 chips, we started playing 100-200 blinds in the flop games and 50 ante/200-400 bets in the ante games. I let myself get anted and blinded down to 500 because the cards went dead and there weren’t even good spots to get a weak hand in heads-up.

With 500 left in the Stud round, I had the bring-in with a five showing. I had (3-3) in the hole and noticed there were several matching big cards behind me and my five looked live. I completed my own bringing in, hoping to get raised - even by a better hand - and be heads-up. An outstanding Danish player reraised but David Williams called. I bet my last 100 and they both called.

I broke into open fives and they checked, but Williams bet after hitting a ten on sixth street. The other player folded and David showed (T-T) in the hole.

When I turned over my nine of diamonds on seventh street and started to get up, David Benyamine said, “He doesn’t even know he made a flush.”

I lasted another five hours on that 500, climbing back to 5,000 by the dinner break, losing most of it, getting some of it back, and finally losing to Barny Boatman, who paid me the compliment, “You’re a hard man to get rid of.” In hold ‘em, I thought I caught him making a move on my big blind so I re-raised him with Ac-5c. We got most of my remaining chips in on a nine-high flop with two clubs. After a four on the turn gave me (with the deuce from the flop) flush draws and straight draws plus my overcard, we got the last of the chips in and Barny showed 4d-2d for two-pair. I still had a bunch of outs on the river but missed them all.

I was disappointed but I was pleased with how I played, and I had a lot of fun. A few things I noticed along the way:

*David Williams sucks on toothpicks while he plays and had one in his mouth that looked like it was covered in diamonds. A blinged-out toothpick?

*Vanessa Rousso got moved to our table and was wearing a brace on one hand. When she removed it for some air, the hand was contorted in what looked like G.I. Joe’s kung-fu grip. I yelled in mock horror, “Oh no! Vanessa’s gonna unleash The Claw!”

*Contrary to what I mentioned in an earlier blog, the rest of the Empire Casino is open. The other gaming areas have been separated by heavy red curtains. (This actually worked very well.) The place was packed, in fact, even though it was Monday. Wow, I guess these Brits really love roulette. Their high-tech video/betting set-up pulled even Andy Bloch and Chris Ferguson to a table.

I snuck up behind Chris and asked, “You got a system?” It turned out he and Andy were just trying to figure out the technology. At least that’s the story they told me.

The upshot of all this was that I didn’t have to play on Tuesday. What better time, I figured, to explore the exotic world of Swiss banking? I didn’t have any idea what I could really do with a Swiss bank account, but it seemed like something I ought to have if I’m going to become an online/offshore payment processor. Plus, the airfares were pretty reasonable, an important consideration because I couldn’t finagle a way to get the Executive Concierge Program to bill airfares to my hotel account.

I learned all kinds of interesting things about the fabled “Swiss banks”, which I’ll try to share if I get a chance to post again tonight or tomorrow. But I did find out something really helpful the other day that I’d like to share.

The hotel manager at this incredible hotel where I’m staying in London made a point of introducing himself to me on Monday – I am, after all, on the Executive Concierge package. I was on my way to the Empire so I was in a hurry. He noticed my Full Tilt logo and we both expressed what a wonderful guy Uncle Tilty was.

That’s when he mentioned to me that Full Tilt had something called a “master account” at the hotel. Would I like to be billed separately for my room and “incidental” charges or have it included on the master account?

“Oh, I’m here with Full Tilt so they’re picking up my expenses. But it would be very helpful if they were billed directly instead of me paying and having to go through reimbursement. Probably easier for them, too.”

So now I don’t even have to pay some outrageous American Express bill and ask for the money back. The manager explained that all the other Full Tilt people were on the master account so it shouldn’t be a problem – which is even better because now my charges will be part of a dozen or so customers and shouldn’t stick out as much (though I should tone it down a little, I admit).

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One Response to “#554 – London 2008 #61 – Postcard from Geneva, Part I – Knocked off My HORSE”

1. Mike Says:
   October 4th, 2008 at 7:38 am

   So the net result of all this is that my rake directly pays for your cigars, filofaxes (who the fuck seriously uses these anymore, its not 1986…) and laptops? I feel cheated.

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