My Journey At The 2007 WSOP

[thkcduckworth]

Day 9

I get up so late today after such a massive night at Tao the night before. I head into the Rio and catch up with Brett and Daniel at the poker expo. Once there we talk about what happened the night before, as they were both at the Mansion party before Daniel went home and Brett went to play at the Venetian.

As I get there, Joe Hachem is signing autographs for the crowd and Brett wants a photo of both of us for the website. Once the photos are taken I go and watch Antonio and Phi Laak battling heads up on the PokerPro machines with some fans, and then see Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson playing the Xbox poker game.

I decided to check out the day 1a Main Event so that I’m not nervous when I start playing tomorrow. I walk round seeing some pro’s playing the first level and then stumble across the Milwaukee’s Best Light feature table where Doyle Brunson is playing. After watching that for a while I decide to head back to the hotel on the free bus. As I’m on the bus I have this craving to have some cards and chips in my hand – I see it as a way to expel all my nervous energy.

Once back at Harrah’s I jump on a $1-2 table where I get up about $13 after turning a straight and getting paid off by a guy with two pair. As I’m sitting there playing they announce that the $100 tourney is starting, so I decide right there that I’ll play that and whatever the result I’ll call it a night.

Once the tourney has started I play some really good small-ball poker and chip up pretty well, then I make this awesome move that should of worked – but didn’t. The blinds are 100-200 and I have the table chip lead by a long way, and look down to see 7d 3c on the button. It gets limped round to me with only 2 folds, and I decide to push all-in trying to take down about a 1600 pot. Everyone folds round to the last player to act where he umms and ahhs for a long time before finally calling all-in with King Jack of spades. Even though the move was really good, he lucked out on me and hit a flush on the river to cut my stack back down to average.

After moving tables and taking down some more pots I eventually reached the final table with the top 6 getting paid and 1st getting $1300. As I tried to survive until the final 3 I let go some premium hands so that I had a better chance of getting more money. As we reached the final 3 the chips interchanged for about half an hour before I knocked out the 3rd place finisher. With $1300 for first and $900 for second I was really after 1st. I eventually gained the chip lead and we were both all in with me having top pair, but getting a straight rivered on me. Consequently I was all-in on the big blind and ended up coming second, the problem was though, being Australian I got taxed and only received about $600 – however I can claim the remaining $300 back when I get home.

I head upstairs to my room where I get my clothes ready for tomorrow as well as my bag filled with essentials such as a jumper, iPod, shuffle, headphones and earphones, chupa-chops and lollies, camera and of course my seating ticket. It’s going to be a nervous sleep tonight, I can just feel it!! (oh, by the way, it got up to 47 degrees today!!!!!!!)

[thkcduckworth]

Day 10

Finally it has come. The reason why I’m in Las Vegas to begin with. The 2007 World Series of Poker Main Event! I’m up by 10am, shave, shower and dressed ready to go. I sit in my room to kill time before I head down to the Harrah’s store to pick up some breakfast of a single red apple.

As a loiter at the bus stop waiting for my 11am ride to the Rio I meet two fellow Main Event day 1b players. We chat for a while about the event and how we qualified before jumping on the bus and heading to the Rio. Once there I head into the expo to see Brett and Daniel before I head to my table. As I’m at the Crown booth I bump into Shane and we decided to head in to take our seats.

Once I find table 45 seat 3 I head over to Shane on table 21 to have a chat. As I get all my nervous energy out by asking him how I should play and stuff, with his response of “just shut up and play your game” we all take our seats and the ‘shuffle up and deal’ announcement is made by Penn & Teller.

I take down a few little pots early to build my starting stack from $20,000 to $23,000 and then I drop back down to about $18,000. Then I come across this monster hand where I’m on the button with 7s 7c with the blinds at 50 and 100. A player in early position raises to 450 and I call and so does the big blind. The flop comes Ks 9h 7h and both players check to me where I bet $1500, which is the pot, the bb calls and the original raiser re-raises to $4000. I think for a while about whether or not he could have a set of kings – I reckon at best he has Ah Kh and call the remaining $2500 and so does the bb. With the pot now at around 15k the turn comes the 7d giving me quads, however it again goes check check and being super confused about what the original raiser is playing I make it $9000. They both go in the tank for a while and eventually fold, where I show my cards saying, “I think it was just enough”.

I lose a few pots and then win a monster pot with pocket 10’s. I raise preflop to $375 and get two callers with the caller in the big blind being the fellow chip leader. The flop comes Qc Jd 9c, the bb leads out with $500 and I call hoping to catch a 10 or hit my open-ended. The turn comes a 6s and again he fires out, I call, and I’m now thinking that I can take it away from him on the river if I miss again. The river comes the 4h and he makes it $1200, I decide that the only way I can win the pot is by raising, so I make it $4000 to go. The bb goes in the tank and in my head I’m chanting “fold, fold, fold”, finally he relinquishes his hand and I say, “what you have? 2 pair?”, he responds, “yeah, top 2 pair” and I follow with, “good fold, I had top set” and muck my cards while I take in a huge pot.

Before the end of the first level I take down another pot with the Kc Kd. I raise under the gun and the player on my left instantly calls, and its heads up to the flop. The flop comes Qc 10s 7c and I lead out with about $800, he decides to re-raise me to about $2000. I think for a while and reason that I could be behind so I just flat call with the hope that I could hit a draw on the turn with a jack or a club. The turn comes the Kh which gives me top set and I check it to him where he bets $2000, I Hollywood for a while and then call. The river is a black and I again check to him where he bets $2000 again, I think for just a little and re-raise to $10000, the player states “I can’t fold, I have to call” and turns over pocket queens for second top set and I rake in another big pot.

I end up finishing the first level on $48000 and am the chip leader for day 1b. As the break begins me and Shane head back to the expo and as I go through my big hands it puts him on semi-tilt as he only has about $4500 in chips!

As we begin the second level I drop a little because I’ve been calling raises with pockets and missing or raising with Ace King etc, continuation betting, getting raised and having to muck until I come across this hand. I get dealt aces for the first time and raise to about $1300 under-the-gun. I get one caller from the short stack and the flop comes Jh 7h 3h and I bet the pot, the caller pushes all-in and I think for a little while before calling and turning over my aces, he turns over Ah Qh for the nut flush draw. He misses everything and I take it down. I end up finishing the level pretty even as we go into our second break for the day.

After being a little card dead for a while in the third session of the day I limp with Ace King off suit. I player in late position raises big time to about $2400 and its folded round to me where I re-raise to $15000 which pretty much puts him all in. My reasoning behind the raise was to get him to fold because I put him on pocket Jacks or 10’s. He keeps thinking for a while and then finally calls. It’s another $100 on the flop and we put it in blind and he turns over Queens and I turn over Ace King. I hit the Ace on the turn, we shake hands and he leaves. As I rake the pot I explain to the table that I knew I was behind, but with that bet he should have folded – that was my aim with the re-raise. With that pot I go up to about $65000 and am 13th chip leader as we approach the fourth session.

From then on it’s the worst 4-5 hours of my tournament poker career as I go completely card dead. With blinds and antes up I look to make some moves, but every time I look to make one there is normally a raise and a call in front of me and I have to muck my hands like King Jack off or 7s 8s. As we go to dinner break me and Shane head to Pho Saigon 8 to have dinner with Kirk. Once we finally get there due to the crappy cab driver we take our seat and I notice that at our table along with Kirk is Steve, a player from my table, and Robert Mizrachi, the recent bracelet winner of the 10k Pot-Limit Omaha event.

After dinner we head back in and I continue my card-dead run. I get one hand for the whole 2-hour session, which is pocket 8’s where I shove and take it down. With the blinds and antes being so expensive and them going round so often due to the quickness of our table I go into the last level with only $33000. As Shane and I discuss what I need to do in the final session we calculate that it will cost $2200 per round in the final level and that I need to take down at least a few pots before the day is out, but with the cards I was getting it seems unlikely I will get anywhere.

As the sixth and final level of the day starts we hear that 1545 players started the day and half were left. Second hand back and with the chip leader now been moved to our table with about $200,000 I get pockets Kings under the gun. With the blinds at $200 and $400 with $100 antes I raise to $10,000 hoping to take down the pot. Everyone folds and I show while explaining that I just needed to pick up a pot. I then get dealt Aces and the chip leader raises to $2200, gets one caller, and I push all-in and they fold. I again get Kings and make it $4000, get one caller and then make it $8000 on the flop and he folds – the reason why I’m being so aggressive is because I don’t want any of the big stacks coming in with marginal hands and hitting a draw or anything like that.

As the tournament director announces to the field “congratulations on reaching day 2 I look down hoping to see like Jack 3 off so I can muck. I look down to see pocket 7’s and decide to raise it up to $1200 and get one caller, which happens to be Kirks friend Steve (its funny because we’re the only two original players from table 45). The board shoes Ah 10c Ad 10s Kh and I turn my 7’s over and he turn 8’s over. Chop! We bag our chips and Shane and I congratulate each other on reaching day 2 – Me with $48,300 and Shane with $71,000 after coming back from $4500 early in the day.

As we wait for Slippers and Christian to finish up work we end up catching up with Kirk. Steve is also with him and we have a laugh at how we’ve spent the whole day together and we’re going to continue our little rendezvous. We head up to Kirk’s suite at the Rio where we order Corona’s and chicken wings – perfect poker recovery food at 4am! As we discuss poker and everything for the day Steve says, “whose stuff is this?” I announce that its mine and he says, “there’s a $100 note sitting here, it must have fell out of your wallet”, not remembering even opening my wallet but seeing it sitting on the floor next to my bag I accept it still trying to piece together where the hell it would have come from.

We down some beers and chicken wings before putting on Reno 911, but as we start watching it I’m pretty much passing out asleep so I decide to call it a night and jump in a taxi. I’m home by 5:30am and pass out dead in my bed. What a day!!

[thkcduckworth]

Day 11

So EXHAUSTED this morning!! After getting home so late I didn’t get much sleep and was up by 12ish. I felt like the worst possible food for lunch . . . so I headed next door to Maccas. I ordered a large Double Quarter Pounder meal and sat down to enjoy the most unhealthiest lunch possible, and boy it was good!

I headed to the Rio feeling really yuk after downing McDonalds and heading into the Poker Expo to catch up with Brett and Daniel. Once there we chatted about how I ended up yesterday and they were both really happy for me to still be there after such a massive day. I walked round the poker expo checking out all the stands again before heading into the main room to check how Tony Hachem and Peter Wong were going on Day 1c.

They weren’t letting in any spectators so I just headed back to the expo. There I saw Johnny Chan again, as well as Marcel Luske and Howard Lederer. I finally bought myself some decent cards for the home game so I don’t have to keep using Julian’s deck. I decided to buy a deck of KEM’s instead of Copag’s because of the different backing colour on the decks – the price wasn’t too different as the KEM’s were $25 for two decks while a deck of the new-style Copag’s are $10 each.

I also decided to buy the 3 Harrington on Hold’em books after finding / been given $100 last night while at Kirk’s suite. For the 3 books it was only $75, so really the books and the cards were kind of free. After ‘purchasing’ the books and cards I bumped into Hoyt Corkins and Patrik Antonius. I got Patrik to sign the imitation poker table mouse pad I got for Aleks for when he plays online and then we started chatting. We discussed how we both went during day 1b and what our strategy would be going into day 2a. After that Brett came up to the both of us and started to discuss the 2008 Aussie Millions and whether or not he would play.

As the expo was closing I headed back to the room to chill before me and Shane headed out to dinner. We caught up at the Sports Bar at the Rio where I felt like a chicken salad while he had some sort of wrap. We then sneaked into the main floor for the second-last session of the day via the PokerNews entrance. After Shane made his profile on the PokerNews website we then left the Rio because it was break-time for the players. I felt like jumping on a table and Shane wanted to join me so we headed to Planet Hollywood to play some cards.

Once there I staked him $200 because he didn’t bring any money. I sat there playing tight, taking down a few little pots before calling this guy down after he snippered my straddle because I thought he was making a play. I straddled $6 and got 4 callers. The flop came 8d, 8h, 9s, it went check, check and I continuation straddled $6 – call, call. The turn was a 3c and I straddle bet again. This player in seat 1, who I had profiled as aggressive, then raised it to $40; it was folded to me where I called. I bet the river blind for another $6 and it was the Ad. He then raised it to $60 where I instantly called and he said, “I’ve got 10 high”, I made him show his bluff and then turned over 9h 5c to take down the pot. Shane and I both knew he was making a play, and after I called him down, he got straight up and cashed out – he probably knew we would eventually felt him.

While at Planet Hollywood we were both interviewed by this lady who was collecting stories from the World Series. She wanted to hear about crucial hands from both our days so she could collate them in her blog once she was back home. We both had our own 5 minutes of fame before getting back to the cards. Shane then busted his original $200 and asked for another $100, which I was happy to lend him. After about 20 minutes he was up to around $380, but eventually lost it all after coping some bad beats. He left and then I did soon after, but not before getting a Starbucks for my walk back home.

I must say for 3am on a Sunday night it was pretty busy, but I guess it is Vegas! I took some photos of the strip at night before getting back to my room and crashed in bed for a well-deserved week-of-good-poker sleep. My results for the week – up $983, cashed in 2 tournaments, survived day 1 of the Main Event and looking to become a millionaire by late next week. It just seems so easy . . . pfft!!

[thkcduckworth]

Day 12

After sleeping in until lunchtime after getting home so late last night I got ready and headed out for the day. I decided that I was going to head to the Fashion Show Mall to reward myself with the purchase of a sporting top and a hat.

Once there, I grabbed some Wendy’s for lunch and headed into the shopping centre to get my hat made. My idea was to get a hat made with [6d 7d] on the front and shake ‘n’ bake on the back. I checked out some of the hats they had, but really didn’t like the way they fitted. So I decided to scrap the idea of the hat and headed to the sporting shop.

I searched for a good gridiron, baseball or hockey jersey with the number 10 on it. The only problem was that most of them were too big or were a crap colour. So just like the hat, I scrapped the idea of getting a personalised sporting jersey as well. Instead I went looking for some new shoes. I know exactly what I want – some old school Nike-type shoes that I can wear with pants and shorts. I found a cool pair of Nike Air Max shoes for about $80, so I think I’ll get them WHEN I survive Day 2a of the WSOP Main Event.

I thought I should buy the poker iPod skins for Aleks and Ibs while I was here, and after Ibs finally answered my question of what type of iPod he had after 4 text messages I bought them and headed off. After leaving Fashion Show Mall I felt like jumping on the felt and mucking round with some cards, so I headed over to Treasure Island to jump on a table for a little while.

Once at the Treasure Island poker room I jumped on a $1-3 table and bought in for $350. After accessing the table image and working out that I definitely didn’t want to be on this table due to the overly loose aggressive nature of most of the players I finally woke up to see pocket Aces and took down a $150 pot. Only after playing for 20 minutes I decided to leave because I had seen 10 all-ins with one guy dropping over $800 from his massive stack. I ended up cashing out a profit of $37 – which is kind of a good start to the week. Hopefully I won’t be playing any cash games this week because I’ll be so busy with the Main Event!

I left Treasure Island and got an ice cream from Ben & Jerry’s before coming back upstairs to write and post my blog's for the past few days. After talking to some friends on MSN and having some pizza for dinner I settle in to get some sleep for tomorrow’s big day.

Here are the stats – 6358 entrants in the 2007 Main Event with the top 621 players getting paid. With approximately 1200 playing tomorrow and 1200 on day 2b, it seems as though the field will be reduced down to about 500 each day to leave 1000 remaining on day 3. So my view is that if I play until late on day 3 I’ll most likely be in the money and cash a minimum of about $25,000 Australian dollars. I’ve got such a long way to go!!

[thkcduckworth]

Day 13

I’m up by 10am and dressed and ready to go before 11am. I head down to the Harrah’s gift store where I pick up an apple and a Gatorade for breakfast. I’m on the bus and at the Rio by 11:15 where I take a bite into my apple once I enter the Rio doors – the bad news: the apple is rotten and I have to pick up something else for breaky. I settle on a banana and am on my way to the Amazon room to get ready for Day 2a of the WSOP Main Event.

Nervous as hell and back and forth to the bathroom for a piss I finally enter the room and sit down at table 195 seat 9. Once there I empty my backpack and unpack my chips, Shane wonders over. We discuss what we did the night before and how superstitious we both have been in what we do and wear in preparing for Day 2. Before play starts we find out that we’re starting the day with 1000 odd players and are playing either to the end of level 5 or until there are 350 players remaining.

Once the days play starts its good to know that my table isn’t very chip heavy with the biggest stacks being 110k and 85k. Having $48,300 in chips to start the day I know that if I play tight and wait for the premium hands I’ll be able to make the most out of the day. My goal – to make the dinner break; which I see as being reasonable with a re-assessment at each level and break of the tournament.

My table breaks real early without me taking down a pot but being blinded and anted down to around 44k. As I’m still on the table Shane comes up to me and says he’s out, I call his bluff, but he assures me that he got knocked out. He coped a cooler with his queen high flush versus the nut-king high flush. I end up getting moved to table 53 where no one on the table has less then 100k; so right there and then I have to change my strategy up for the day. I decide to only play the most premium of all hands and look to double up and survive until the end of each level. I get blinded, anted and raised out of pots and get down to 19k before I run into this hand. I get pocket 6’s in late position and limp in, it gets called round to the big blind who make it 12k to go, and its folded round to me. I think that he’s probably trying to steal the blinds, but with a semi-reasonable hand like Ace x, so I decide to push all-in over the top. It gets folded round to him, where he thinks for a while and then calls.

To my surprise he turns over pocket queens and I say to him, “what took you so long to call?” Being such an underdog I knew my Main Event was over. I turned my iPod off, unclipped my bag and was ready to leave the Rio until 2008, but then my first miracle suck-out of the tournament happened and I hit my 5%, 2-outer, 6 of spades on the river and sat back down with $40,500 in chips. I apologised countless times about how dirty that was and how I thought we were probably racing while I stacked up my chips. I finished the first level on $38,200 and entered the break feeling pleased that I had survived the first level.

I meet up with Shane and Slippers outside where I get some food and tell them about what happened during that level. I enter the room to start level 2 of the day and end up winning a 72.4k pot with pocket queens. However with blinds at $600 – $1200 and antes at $200, my stack dwindles down to $60,600 with only 640 players remaining. As we start level 3 with blinds at $800 - $1600 and antes at $200 I only want to survive until dinner break so that I can achieve my goal of the day. I get one hand all level when I flat call the raiser the whole way with Ad Kd once I’ve flopped top pair top kicker. At the end of the level and on my way to dinner break I’m sitting on $76,700 in chips with about 500 players remaining on Day 2a.

I head over to Gold Coast to meet Shane for dinner. We meet at the poker room where we head to Ping Pong Pang for some Chinese and wait for Christian and Slippers. I enjoy I really nervous dinner and explain to the boys that I’m leaving early to get rid of some of this nervous energy. The reason why I’m nervous – I think its because I’m so close to reaching day 3 and possibly some money. Also the fact that I don’t have too many chips and if I make one small mistake my tournament could be over. No one understands that in this game I love to play it involves hours of boredom and control followed my minutes of excitement where one correct decision could make you a potential millionaire or one mistake could cost you your tournament life.

As I enter level 4 ($1000 - $2000 blinds and $300 antes) I know that the best chance for me to survive until day 3 is not by seeing out the day but for the remaining 150 players to be knocked out. I go completely card dead during the level and finish on $54,400 in chips with 384 players remaining in the field. As we go into level 5 needing only 34 players to be knocked out (without one of them being me) I go into complete lock-down and rock mode. I’m folding super-premium hands like A J, 8 8, K J, A Q etc to a raise so I can hopefully come back in two days time.

Then with only a player or two needed to be knocked out so the day’s play can end I get dealt Ah Jd under the gun. I decide I need to try and make a play here so I push all-in with my remaining $29,800. Everyone folds and I increase my stack by about $6000. Feeling a little better I post my big blind and get dealt Ah Kc – once I see those cards, doesn’t matter what the action is I’m pushing all-in. The UTG player flat calls the $2400 and Tony Dunst (a player known back home in Australia) calls from the small blind. I instantly push all-in, the UTG player thinks for a while and then calls while Tony mucks.

“All in and call on 53!” is shouted out by the dealer and about 3 camera crews rush over. I turn over my Ah Kc and he turns over Ad Jd – knowing I’m a heavy favourite I just hope the board completely bricks out. The flop comes Kd Qh 5d, giving me the lead but giving him possibly 12 outs with any 10 or diamond completing his hand. What a sweat I have to go through! The board bricks out and I’m back up to over $80,000!! As the hand is over the tournament supervisor announces that the day is over and that this will be the last hand. I instantly muck my small blind hand and bag my chips for the day. I end up finishing the day on $83,600 with only 349 players remaining from Day 2a.

I meet with Shane and Kirk outside and explain the comeback I just went through. As Shane heads off with Kirk I go with Slippers and Christian to Planet Hollywood to play the 2am tournament – I know it sounds stupid that after such a gruelling day of poker already I’m going to play more. The real reason I’m going is so that I can have free Corona’s all night long to celebrate getting to Day 3.

Once at Planet Hollywood we jump on a $1-2 table to kill some time. My first straddle I make it $6 and there are a couple of callers around to Christian in the big blind who makes it $20. I call blind and we go to the flop. The flop come 6d 6h 7c and he checks to me where I push all-in, he goes I have aces so I must call. The turn is a 5 and the river another 6. Christian goes “I have King high” and shows his cards, I turn my first card over and it’s a 2h and then my second card which is a 7s. They ship the pot to me with my full house, 6’s over 7’s and Christian rebuys.

When we start the 2am tournament Slippers is in seat 1, Christian in seat 3 and myself in seat 4. After a few hands I get knocked out in such a donkey way. Slippers raises to $175 and I re-raise him with As Ks to $650, everyone folds and he calls. The flop comes Ah Jd 7s and we both check – the reason why I checked was so I could trap him on the river. The turn comes the Kd giving me two-pair, and Slippers checks and I bet $250. Slippers instantly pushes all-in and I instant call.

Slippers turns over Q 10 off for the broadway straight and I just stare at him yelling comments like, “you’re such a donkey”, “you call my re-raise with Queen 10!” etc etc. He knocks me out and rakes in the pot and states, “that’s how you play poker!” Being on donkey tilt I head over to Shane who has just arrived and I bitched to him about my bad beat.

While the rest of the gang compete in the tournament I head to the payphone to call my folks and Aleks. Afterwards I decide to head home where I jump in the shower, call Ibs and jump into bed super-pleased of myself after making day 3. Time to buy shoes tomorrow!!

[thkcduckworth]

Day 14

After such a long and gruelling day yesterday I ended up sleeping in until about 1pm, but then just lay in bed for another hour while watching some TV. Once up and ready I headed to Maccas and got some lunch. I decided to head to the Premium Outlets to have a look round and potentially reward myself with a new pair of shoes after getting through Day 2a of the Main Event.

After a $20 taxi ride downtown I arrived at the Premium Outlets. It’s basically an outdoor shopping centre about 2 kilometres long. As I checked out all the sporting and clothing outlets I realised that there was nothing really there that tickled my fancy. After about 45 minutes I decided to head over to the Fashion Show Mall to buy the red, white and black Nike Air Max I was after.

This time it only cost $15 to get there, and since my credit expired last night while talking to Ibs, my first stop was the phone store to pick up some additional credit. After doing that, and umming and ahhing over whether or not to get a massage (and choosing against one, just cause), I headed to Champs to scope out the Air Max. Being so anal I couldn’t decide whether or not I wanted to get them because I wasn’t sure if they would go with my jeans or not – yep that’s right, I’m super anal!!

Anyway I decided that next time I come to the mall I’d wear jeans so I could see if they go together. I headed back to the room so I could jump on the net, check PokerNews and MySpace and chat to friends on MSN. After sharing my new business ideas with Aleks about opening a bar / restaurant and my new home game idea I did my usual washing. I washed my WSOP polo top, some undies and socks and then switched on Family Guy while writing my blogs for the past two days.

Dinner was a bit of a dilemma tonight, because after having pizza the night before each day I’ve played, did I really want to remain superstitious and get pizza, or try something different? Following my semi-superstitious nature I’ve worn the same clothes the past two days I played – Dunlop volleys, my black WSOP polo and jeans. The only difference was that Day 1b I took my Deakin Basketball hoodie, but on Day 2a I wore my red Bonds hoodie. My thinking is that if (or should I say when – but I don’t want to get cocky etc or it may piss off the poker gods) I make the money and then Day 4 I’ll mix up what I wear.

So for dinner I choose to eat pizza again and after that I decided to head over to the Rio to see how Tony Hachem, Angie Italiano and Julian Powell were doing. All doing well except for Angie who is close to elimination if she doesn’t pick up any chips soon or early tomorrow. I jump back on the free bus back to Harrah’s. I pack my bag for tomorrow, jump in the shower and settle for a (hopefully) good nights sleep. Hopefully next time you’ll be hearing from me is when I’m telling you all that I’ve got a VERY full wallet!!

[thkcduckworth]

Day 15

I wake up nervous as all hell this morning as I know I’m just so close to cashing in the 2007 WSOP Main Event. I go through the normal routine of showering and dressing in jeans, my black polo, a yellow armband, my ring and my beaded bracelet. As I’m leaving the hotel I pick up a banana and grab a red Gatorade and then jump on the bus to the Rio.

Once there I check the chip counts to see how chip heavy my table is and empty my bladder 20,000 times. I jump on table 10, seat 2 with my $80,000 odd in chips and start the day’s play. I hit some really good hands and take down pots pre-flop with pocket 9’s, 8’s, Kings and Aces. I have to lay down 10’s for my tournament life after flat calling a raise and then getting re-raised by Ace King. I also lay down some really strong marginal hands such as King Jack suited several times as well as Ace 10 a couple of times.

At the break I’m sitting on $54,200 in chips with only 638 players left and only 17 to be knocked out before we all reach the money. Tony Hachem, Julian Powell, Leo Boxell, Angie Italiano, Gary Benson and myself are some of the few remaining Aussies left in the field and I know that I can fold to the money because there are some shorter stacks then mine. As they go hand-by-hand they pretty much lose a player per hand, and this includes Juls who runs his A K into A Q, with a queen flopping on the board and he’s out in 630th spot.

As we’re down to 623 players remaining its folded round to me on the button where I look down at Qh Qs. Now my thoughts coming into the day was that I’m still going to play poker, my range was Jacks and better, but everything else was an instant fold. As I look down at my queens I know I have the best hand against two random blind hands. I really have 4 options here. I can fold, limp in, raise a small amount or push all-in.

Being the donkey I am I decide to push all-in, now as I do that the small blind leans back and goes, “ahhh, ok I call”, and with that comment I think we’re racing (which I’ll take), but right after that the big blind asks how much. With that statement from the young kid I turn to Tony Hachem and just grimace. He finally folds, and the dealer announces “all-in and call on 35” and about 3 camera’s rush over. I slow roll him hoping that he turns first, but I end up tabling my queens and he turns over black aces. I get up pack my stuff as they deal the flop. The flop comes 4, 7, 8 and with that, some of the players on my table calls out 5, 6 chop. The turn and river brick out and I bubble in 623rd spot.

As I collect my things and get consoled by Tony I head to the supervisor who escorts me to the bubble playoff supervisor. As I register for the Milwaukee’s Best Light Bubble playoff, which is a 10-player, sit-n-go where the winner receives entry into the 2008 Main Event as well as a years supply of beer. I exit the Amazon room via the spectator entrance where I punch the door and go and sit under the payphones near the bathroom.

As I sit there contemplating one of the biggest mistakes of my life and the fact that I broke two fingers in my tilt rage Shane and Christian rock up. They try talking to me but they were getting nothing out of me and headed inside to see Kirk, as I do also after about 20 minutes. I tell Kirk that I busted as well as Angie before I head back to Tony and Joe Hachem to eventually see him bust out as well. We head out to the payout room together where I ask Joe about how I got knocked out, as is most people’s response, he asks me was the money really that important to you? Since my answer is obviously yes, he tells me then you should have mucked, got to the money and then pushed around with your last remaining 40k.

I need to speak to someone about what happened and call Ibs and my Dad, but after that there is only one person I really feel like talking to since I’m feeling so bad, so I decide to give Rena a call. As we’re speaking she’s coincidently reading my blog, and even though she consoles me during our whole conversation, it’s still really hard to put what I’ve done behind me.

I’ve been playing the Main Event for over 20 hours; I played my A-game the whole time nursing the short stack through 3 days of play and outlasted 5735 players to finish just two players short of $20,320. I displayed such mental toughness just so that I could reach the money, and then to flip out 2 minutes short is just so disappointing.

I need to leave the Rio and Shane, Cam and I head up to Cam’s room to chill for a while. We watch Van Wilder 2 and use the internet before we get some food delivered to the room. Johnno and Christian head up after working and we chat about my crappy act of pushing all-in instead of folding. I start falling asleep on the couch and decide to head back to my room to continue my sulking after basically losing 23k!!

It’s going to take a long time for me to get over what has happened today. Even though I finished a very respectful 623 out of 6358 players at the World Series, had (so far) the holiday and time of my life and made some great friends its going to really test my emotional stableness to put what happened today behind me. The only thing that will most likely make me feel better is victory at the Victorian Championships, the PokerNews Cup, the Aussie Millions and the WSOP 2008 Main Event!!

[thkcduckworth]

Day 16

I get up this morning at around 12 after getting home late after chilling with Cam, Shane, Johnno and Christian at the Rio last night. I get ready, pack my bag and jump on the bus to the Rio to play the Bubble tournament at 1:30pm.

I arrive at the quiet Rio Amazon room where I head to see Kirk. We chat for a while and then he goes back to playing Day 4 of the Main Event where he is looking at building a good amount of chips to hopefully take him to his 3rd bracelet. As I’m waiting at the bubble table a few other ‘bubblers’ head over and we start discussing how we got knocked out. I again start to realise how easy it would have been to make the money if I was a little more patient.

As we’re waiting until the tournament starts the camera crew from ESPN comes over and asks if I’ll do an interview with them. I agree of course and they mike me up and get the camera rolling. They make me state my name and where I come from, “Hi I’m Tim Duckworth from Melbourne, Australia” and then they ask about what I think of the Bubble tournament presented by Milwaukee’s Best Light. I talk about how they’ve given us all a great opportunity to get a second chance and how I’m devastated about bubbling but some how relieved about getting this chance.

We then start the tournament and are soon down to 7-handed. I try to convince the director John to give me the table, or at least the felt, so I can take it home. He doesn’t allow me, but ends up letting me have the big blow-up Milwaukee Best Light beer can that sits at about 6ft high.

There is a break and we are down to 5-handed, and first hand back I get dealt Ks Kc. Being short-stacked I push all-in and it gets folded round to the small blind who instantly goes all-in and turns over the As Ac. WHAT!! AGAIN!! I get up through my iPod at my bag and pack up ready to leave. The board bricks and I’m out in 5th spot.

I head to the Carnival World Buffet where I was supposed to meet Slippers and Monica, but once there I couldn’t find them so I just ate by myself instead. Afterwards I head back to the Rio to meet Shane, Christian and Cam where we all watch Kirk who has been moved to the ESPN feature table. We watch for a while and then I head back to the hotel room to get changed into some going out clothes.

Once back at Cam’s room in the Rio we all meet up and head to the VooDoo Lounge. The VooDoo Lounge is a nightclub on the roof of the Rio, which overlooks the whole of the strip. We grab some drinks and scope out the nightclub for an hour or two before heading back down to see Kirk and the remaining hour of the last session. Once the day is over we all head over to the Bellagio so Cam and Shane can watch the All Blacks match in the Sportsbook.

We check out Bobby’s room where the biggest game in town is being held and we see Eli Elezra, Gus Hansen, Patrik Antonius, Freddy Deeb, Chau Giang, SGRugby and a few other pros. Since the rugby isn’t being televised at the Bellagio we decide to head to the Hard Rock where we’ve been guaranteed that it will be on. As we are heading out to the car, we bump into Joe and Tony Hachem. We start chatting for a while with them and Joe’s kids before we depart to the Hard Rock.

Once we’re at the Hard Rock we start watching the rugby, but since its such a boring game, Christian and I head to the craps table (just so that everyone understands, Cam and Shane are both from New Zealand, also Cam has a huge bet on the rugby pools which will possible earn both him and Kirk over 100k). Christian teaches me the game of craps and I slowly start to understand it once Shane and Cam arrive.

Everyone apart from me plays it for a while before me and Cam decide to head to roulette where I donk off 50 bucks quickly while Cam gets up over $300. As we’re playing roulette Christian and Shane head to play Pai Gow Poker and continue drinking. We join them and both learn the game of Pai Gow while continuing our consumption of Corona’s and shots. Its 6am by the time we all jump in a taxi and I pass out instantly once in bed.

[thkcduckworth]

Day 17

After arriving home at 6am this morning after playing craps and pai gow all night at the Hard Rock I didn’t get up until 2pm. Yes I know, I’ve only got a few days left in Vegas and I’m sleeping in till the arvo! Donkey!!

Well once up I chuck on some clothes and grab some lunch before jumping on the computer to chat to Aleks and Ibs. We discuss my disgusting play with Queens and just chat about what I’ve been up to as well as the business idea I have for Shane, Ibs and myself. I check PokerNews every so often to find out how Kirk is doing today – and it isn’t too good since, as he’s lost a few pots and sitting on around a million in chips.

Still sulking after bubbling in the Main Event I decide on how I’m going to tackle the remainder of the year. Here is my plan:
- Arrive home
- Write up business plan
- Win a Vic Champs Main Event seat
- Win a WSOPE seat
- Work for PokerNews during the Vic Champs
- Final table at Vic Champs Main Event (decent cash)
- Final table at WSOPE (even better cash)
- Win a PokerNews Cup Main Event seat
- Final table at PokerNews Cup (semi-decent cash)
- Establish business
- Win Aussie Millions Main Event seat

I know it seems semi-unrealistic, but the way I’m feeling after bubbling at the World Series, it’s the only thing that will make me feel slightly better about myself.

I decide to do some washing, and as I’m washing my black polo the sink plug jams and I can’t drain the water. Harrah’s sends an engineer out to fix the plug, yeah, I know, an engineer . . . shouldn’t it have been a plumber. Anyway it got fixed and I finished off my washing and started working out what I still have to do before heading home.

Being in my room pretty much all day I keep messaging Shane to see if we’re up to anything tonight. Since Kirk is looking low and in some trouble if he doesn’t pick up any chips soon, Kirk and Cam are going to chill at the Milwaukee’s Best Light feature table to see him through to the end of day 5. So I decide to sit down and write my blogs while watching highlights of the 2005 WSOP Main Event.

Its bad news as I receive a message from Shane saying that Kirk has been eliminated in 56th place earning a $154,195 pay check for a great world series by the new poker up and comer. Congrats Kirk, it’s been great hanging out with you and congratulations on such a great World Series and 2007 so far.

I decide to have dinner somewhere close and choose the food court just outside of the hotel. Sensing that we’re not going to be doing anything tonight in celebration of Kirk’s 56th placing in the main event, and the fact that Shane hasn’t messaged, I decide to start writing up my business plan by thinking of suitable business names, and then turn in for the night by about 2am.

[thkcduckworth]

Final Days

It takes me forever to get up after being up so late last night, and I get ready, making sure I have jeans on for my shopping expedition. I head straight to Fashion Show Mall with the goal of getting my shoes finally and on the way there I stop via the Venetian and the Wynn casino’s to pick up some $1 chips for Ibs and I.

Once at Fashion Show I head to Champs to have a look at the red, black and white Nike Air Max I was interested in. Since I was getting no help from anyone I head to Foot Locker instead and try them on, as well as another pair of blue and yellow Nike’s. The red, black and white Air Max don’t look that good with my jeans so I try the blue and yellow ones on. Since they make me look so cool and hip (pfft) I settle on those ones and head to the food court for some chicken and chips.


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For some reason there was nothing about the rest of this day or the final day in Las Vegas.

Hope you enjoyed it anyway.