It’s always good to knock out a player. You go up in prize money, you gain some chips, you avoid being the shortest stack. When you’re the shortest stack, that’s when you feel like you have to gamble, and you can’t play the same basic game that you would otherwise. The whole nature of the game changes when you’re the short stack.
For a half hour this afternoon the Full Tilt lounge turned into an impromptu poker academy, and, initially a disinterested bystander, I suddenly found myself the lucky beneficiary of all that shared knowledge. Michael Craig, bestselling author of The Professor, The Banker, and The Suicide King, kicked off the discussion when he entered the lounge, spotted Andy Bloch and Andy Black relaxing on the couches, and said, “I’ve got a question for the two Andys.”
At this point in the World Series I have stopped paying attention to first days, especially in low-stakes events like today’s $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em event. These tournaments attract huge fields, poor play, and horrific beats. It’s all a bit too much, and it gets even more painful to watch every time some amateur’s dream of hitting for a big score on the world’s biggest poker stage gets shattered. Their first reaction is to get on their cell phone and bemoan their rotten luck to anyone willing to listen. Mine is to steer clear of the Amazon Room.
So for all those keeping track… First, Harrah’s (I am using the title of the corporate entity because I honestly don’t know who is in charge around here and I’m not sure “they” know either) turned this morning’s $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha tournament into a re-buy event with less than 24-hours notice. And then this morning, after getting an earful from all those who had signed up to play in that event but didn’t have the bankroll to keep re-buying, they changed it back into a regular pot-limit Omaha tournament.
I just joined the World Poker Association today as a founding member. It’s an association that really needed to happen. I’ve been involved in a couple of them that have never taken off the ground because it takes a lot of money and it takes the support of the poker players to get it going.
Is it just me or does it seem like this World Series is being running by a pack of chimpanzees on the loose after having broken out of the local zoo? Yes, Harrah’s did address the most glaring problems from last year: access to decent affordable food and drink and a place to deposit the ensuing results. While the Perma Potties out by the Milwaukee’s Best Light Garage are a step up from the Porta Potties found at most large gatherings, they’re really a concession to the gripes of the spectators and casual players. But what about the REAL players, the top pros?
Andy Bloch is still in the house. After a quicker exit than he would have liked from today’s $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout, Andy spent the afternoon in the Full Tilt lounge doing—what else?—playing poker, this time online in a satellite for the main event of the World Series. No matter that he has already bagged two seats in the championship. When you’re on a roll like he is, you have to keep pushing for all it’s worth.
…but that doesn’t mean I’m out!
Andy Bloch is in the house.
In the HORSE event I had $50,000 to start and I lost a big pot in the hold’em so I lost $15,000 right away. That got me down to around $30,000. After that I would win a pot, lose a pot, and then the blinds and antes got so big that I just got blinded off. I lost one Omaha pot. I literally only had enough left to play one Omaha pot. I flopped second low and two pair and the other guy flopped nut nut. That severely crippled me. I only had $6,000 left so that was it for me.
