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So it’s been a month since we returned from Sin
City, covering the poker marathon you all know as the
World Series of Poker. Now that I have finally adjusted
to being back in reality, the powers that be have shipped
me back to Vegas for a taste of Camp Hellmuth.
Upon my arrival, I steal my first set of blinds by
grabbing a free room upgrade by accepting a room that
has not been dedicated to nonsmoking. After shaking
off the roughest landing of my flying career with a
soak in the Jacuzzi tub, I am off to Club Pure for the
Camp Hellmuth private party. Did I say Pure? They should
call it Purrr, as it’s home to the sultry and
seductive Las Vegas Pussycat Dolls. But before I can
wag my tongue at the eye candy, I have to navigate the
man-gauntlet of Hellmuth’s poker campers. I mean,
I love poker as much as the next guy, but come on! Imagine
being trapped in a small bar with 75 poker nuts, 98%
of which are men. I was hammered with an onslaught of
bad beat stories and “I’m actually good
enough to be a pro” stories. It was like being
back at Bluff HQ listening to Dan Gordon from Dan’s
Diary. I’ve never been so happy for an open bar
to dull the pain.
In all seriousness though, I was very impressed with
Phil, TJ Cloutier and our resident rock star Antonio
Esfandiari for hanging and engaging with the poker common
folk. Antonio brought some
early fireworks with card tricks to rival Gandalf himself.
For those of you that haven’t witnessed any of
Antonio’s craftsmanship, he is something special.
Soon the Dolls and the rest of the night is but a memory…
All right, enough partying’ it’s time for
some poker. My first seminar was on picking up tells
with Joe Navarro. Some of you may remember him as the
former FBI interrogator from a previous article with
Poker Girl Annie Duke. I’ll tell you what: Navarro
alone may have been worth the price of admission. He
went into great detail of not only what minute actions
to look for, but explained the underlying reasons behind
their occurrence. According to Joe, the best place to
look for tells is at a player’s feet. It goes
back to the primal ‘fight or flight’ decision.
When someone is nervous, their feet will naturally get
ready for confrontation, so they will be on their toes
and ready to run away. Another great place to look is
at their pupils. They naturally contract when they miss
the flop, because they are preparing to focus to defend
themselves (or their stacks). I feel so sorry for Joe’s
daughter’s boyfriends – there would be no
getting away with anything in that house. His lecture
was so impressive that Cloutier and Hellmuth were taking
notes.
Next came seminars from TJ Cloutier and the man in
black himself, Phil Hellmuth, with comic relief provided
by John Bonetti. Both Phil and TJ went over typical
hands they like to play and how to play them. They also
went over a lot of the famous hands poker fans have
seen on TV and explained their decisionmaking process
for those hands. Then there was Bonetti. Bonetti was
there to play off Phil. Think Jerry Seinfeld and George
Costanza.
After three hours of seminars, it was time to put our
game to the test. This was where some of the best teaching
went on. Anyone fortunate enough to play at the table
with a pro got to see their cards, along with an explanation
of how they had played them.
So there I am, Phil is in the big blind and I am two
off the button. The table folds around to me and I raise
two units with A-9 of hearts. Phil calls, and we are
heads up. The flop comes 8-J-Q rainbow. Phil checks
and I check. The turn is a king and Phil throws in a
minimum probe bet. Without hesitation, I throw in a
decent raise, small enough to look like I want him to
call. Phil folds and then shows the table his open ended
10-7 offsuit to tell the table why he played it that
way. I respond by showing Phil my nine, which gave me
a gut shot with him holding one of my outs. The table
erupts…. Priceless! Unfortunately, that is about
as good as it got. I e money in the tournament and then
bubbled a sit n go after getting sucked out.
Day two left no room for disappointment. Antonio struggled
through the morning after a night of being Antonio,
and still provided possibly the best strategy seminar
of the camp. The Magician described the mystifying power
of how to be the most feared player at the table with
well-placed aggression. The second day of class included
Thomas ‘Thunder’ Keller going over key online
strategies, as well as more strategies and stories from
the Hellmuth-Bonetti show.
The second day of tournament play seemed to be greatly
expedited by Antonio’s lesson on aggression. “If
you are ever unsure of what you should do in a situation,
just bet. So what if they know what you are doing, if
they don’t have a hand they can’t call you!”
No doubt some campers got caught with their hand in
the cookie jar. I know I did when my large position
raise with A8 hearts ran into pocket kings. At least
I had a few outs …
The evening ended with a final table banquet, equipped
with an open bar and steak dinner. The crowd was also
treated with additional guest appearances by David Williams
and Johnny Chan. Oakley thumps were passed out to those
that had knocked out the pros during the main tournament,
and top tournament performers were honored in front
of the campers and the pros.
The camp was a great experience and a hell of a lot
of fun. I was very impressed to see how far the reach
of poker has gone into the world’s population.
The camp helped everyone from a 55-year-old naturopathic
physician from Oregon to a 21-year-old student from
England who used his student loan money to get there.
The only thing missing was a lecture on how to throw
a tantrum from Phil. I guess I’ll have to suck
him out on a televised table for that one.
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