High Stakes Poker

This thing was the nuts. Wow. A televised high stakes cash game. Genius. Thanks to Mori Eskandani and Henry Orenstein, we have the greatest poker show of all time; 300/600 No Limit Hold’em with 100-dollar antes; 100k min buy-in. Two days of 14-hour poker, back-to-back. Cut into 16 episodes. This will be Season Two of High Stakes Poker on the Game Show Network. Watching Season One left me stunned. This was nothing like the poker I had seen before. Cash game versus tournament play. This was the shizzle-hizzle, for sure. Wow. I needed to play this thing. That was all I could think about.

Season Two – must play. Season Two – must play. Season Two – must play. It was my mantra for quite a while. The feeling was akin to my senior year in high school, when I waited with baited breath to see if I would get early acceptance to my college of choice.

In the poker world, I live in the trenches: 20/40 no limit and 50/100 no limit games at the Commerce and Bellagio are my bread and butter. The word from the trenches – the same. Everyone loves this show. People really love it. Even the guys that don’t watch poker on TV find time to watch this show. It makes sense, though. You can watch your favorite players experience the twisted highs and lows of No Limit Hold’em. And if someone felts them? No problem. They don’t have to leave. They just simply reload. Lovely. No one quits until they want to. True poker. Cash game poker. My world. Always visceral.

I was fully stoked when I found out that I got a timeslot. (About 16 players took turns at the eight-handed table.) The game would be five or six times bigger than I have ever played. Occasionally, a 100/200 No Limit game (with no antes) would spring up at the Bellagio, but they were few and far between. The GSN game was insane. Cost per orbit... $1,700. Enter.... Poker Academy. Very cool poker software. (Random fact that has nothing to do with this story: If you want to learn how to play Heads Up LIMIT poker, this software is the stone cold nuts). Anyway, I practiced with the software and, in no time, got comfortable with the bet sizes.

Opening for $3,000 and then making $10,000 calls preflop?!!? Completely mad! I mentally projected myself into the future and made these bets. I played in my head. Might as well; there is plenty of space, right? I imagined connecting with flops and folding marginal hands in early position. I saw myself appearing tight yet stealing with position. I was a kid waiting for Christmas as I drifted off to sleep each night that week.

The power of believing (hitting sets, etc.) is a freeroll in flex-mapping. Flex-mapping is how the universe is forever folding and unfolding different paths... we choose the future with our state of mind. The power of practicing. It is limited to think that you have to be at the table to improve your game…. Why not get better whenever you want... not just when you are playing?

Logistics. I want to have three bullets for the game. $100k, $100k, and $100k. $300k! Wow, that is sick. There will be no second mortgages or the sale of any stocks. Instead, this will be a week for chip conversion. When you open your first box in a casino, the only sure thing that makes its way into it is the $100 receipt the cage gives you when you open it. It comes empty and it is your job to fill it up. If you are lucky, the box becomes too small for your cash. When this happens, you focus on chips. Buy in for 20k cash, but leave the game with chips. Betting with the cash and keeping chips does the trick. When you quit the game, you compress the chips into flags (Bellagio’s $5,000 chips are called flags), or pink chips if you are at the Commerce. Before too long, you have lots of space in your box, but also lots of money (clay money, but still very sexy). This was my routine for a while now, so my chip position crushed my cash position. I needed to convert lots of chips into cash. 200,000 in total. My Commerce box had 100k in cash already.

The game was in Vegas, but I was in LA. My box at the Bellagio was 90% chips and at the Commerce it was about 75% in chips. I was going to be converting a boatload of chips to cash over the next few weeks, that was for sure. The game was at the Palms and, at the time, I did not know that arrangements had been made for the Palms to take Bellagio chips and convert them to Palms chips. I could have asked someone, but it never crossed my mind. So I was off on my little chip-conversion sidebar ride and it was never even necessary.

Well, I finally finished and at last had $300,00 in paper money. (FYI, volumetrically, 300k is slightly less than the space 15 DVD cases would take up.) The cash was in L.A. but the game was in Vegas. Hmmmmm. I have never flown with that much cash. The last thing I wanted was to have problems with TSA or Southwest Airlines on the day before the game.

I called the Transportation Security Administration and was surprised to hear a security expert assure me that I could fly anywhere in the USA with ANY AMOUNT of money that I wanted. No worries, no paperwork, no stress.

So I loaded up my backpack – laptop and cash – and off I went. Why didn’t the blackjack MIT kids ever make that phone call? (Those were the guys who whacked the Vegas casinos for millions by counting cards. They would tape the money to their legs and chest when they traveled. They were paranoid that they would be detected moving through security with all their cash.)

As I hopped into the cab in Vegas, I gave it all a silent chuckle when I considered the following... What if the TSA guy was just trying to sound smart, but was clueless? What if the MIT kids knew something I didn’t? After all, if they got into MIT then, on the whole, they probably made good decisions. Maybe they had the right idea. Over the years I have noticed a strange thing. People constantly pretend they are in the know, when actually they are fully and totally clueless (a truly amazing feature that plagues mankind for some reason). Well, if I was wrong, at least I was safely in a Las Vegas cab now. I wasn’t stuck in some holding cell explaining to a TSA guy why I had 300k with me. Instead, I was on my way to the biggest poker game of my life. Heaven.

We started at noon, and by 2p.m., my 100k had dribbled down to 65k. Not good. Please don’t go felt, Phil. Just need one pot to be back in the game. Somehow I picked up top pair with a flush draw. I never made the flush but fortunately won the hand anyway. It was against Mike Matusow. I remember not being happy with how I played the hand, but the money came my way, so that was that. After that hand, everything began to fall in sync. Very happy for that. I started to handle the chips as if it was a 20/40 No Limit game at the Commerce and I was officially surfing the Wa. (Translation: Being in the present and tasting the future.)

My seven hours ended and my replacement had arrived. It was the shortest seven hours of my life. I had to go. I was crestfallen. It was weird; I had just beat this game for $185,570, but still I was a bit bummed out. I did not want to go. I am not used to playing such short sessions, and I felt like I was on the roll of a lifetime.

Seven hours and $185,570 ahead. How did that happen? Oh my God, I just had the biggest cash win of my life. How sick. It happened, I am sure of it. It was not a dream. But I had to get up. C’est la vie!

I left the game, but not the studio. It was too much fun. I found a seat in “Video Village.” Even though I couldn’t see the hole cards, it was still very interesting. In fact, it was the next best thing. I was watching the game. The next day, as well. I woke up, had something to eat, and presto... I was back in the studio, behind the scenes, watching the monitors. Who says you need the hole cards for good viewing?

And like the kid in the candy store with no money, I found a nickel. Well, not exactly. Better. Players got tired, players got felted, and players went home. Seat open? Did I hear seat open? Am I the luckiest guy alive, or am I just the luckiest man alive? Five minutes later, I was miked up and ready to go. I was able to fit in two additional (short) sessions and somehow maintained the Wa. I won in each of those additional two sessions. The three-session take was a whopping $281,610. Three sessions/two days/12.5 hours of play/huge win. So sick. I know large numbers are always getting thrown around in poker nowadays and we are all a bit anesthetized to it. I hope it doesn’t look like I am waving my arms saying, “Look at me, look at me... look at what a stud I am.” Rather, I’m trying to send the message of how amazed I was. In ten years of gambling (’gammon included), this was my biggest cash game win ever! I am not Doyle, Ivey, or Hachem. I do not have hundred thousand dollar swings. I am a bread and butter gambler. It could have been a scene right out of Forrest Gump. It was surreal. These numbers were GIGANTIC for me. (OK... OK... don’t bend my arm... yes, yes, I will tell you what it comes to per hour, minute and second... $22,528.80 per hour, $375.48 per minute and about $6.26 per second of play.) Holy Cannoli!!

Normally, I am not big on the post-mortem on the specifics of hands, but these two hands keep popping up in my head. I will share them with you now.

I lost bigger pots that night, but this one still stings. I raised with J-J to about $2,500. Antonio reraised me, making it $13,500. I called the $11,000. The flop came rags (8-6-2 rainbow, or something) and I actually thought I was beat. Why I put him on aces or kings is way beyond me, but I did. Preflop, I thought he had a monster and I couldn’t shake the feeling. Meanwhile, he had 10-3 offsuit, and when I checked, he fired. How I folded that hand I have no idea. I will probably be sick for a few more months. For me, there is no greater pain than to lose to Antonio. Conversely, beating him gives me satisfaction that is unparalleled to anything else. Brutal. He bluffed me. When I see that on TV, I will probably be in pain all over again.

This was for sure the most insane hand ever. Not for anything that I did, but for the fact that Daniel Alaei nearly made the call of the century. Had he, I would have been crushed. Here is the hand. Matusow limps for $600 utg, I call, Antonio folds, Danny Alaei makes it $3,000. Farha calls, as does Negreanu, who is on the button. The blinds fold, as does Matusow, and I call the remaining $2,400. So the pot has $1,700 (antes and blinds), plus $12,000 (3k from the 4 of us) and Mike’s $600. Or $14,300.

The flop comes Js Jd 2h. Nothing for me. I have 10-7 of hearts. First to act, I check. Everyone checks behind me. Hmmm. Any thoughts of stealing this pot are way off at this point. First to act, with three players behind me. Turn is the 3h. I have picked up a ten high flush draw. I check. Alaei bets 10k (Steal? Value bet? Jack?). Farha folds and Negreanu calls. If Negreanu had folded, I think I would have folded as well. But he called. It is now costing me 10,000 for 34,300. I call. (By the way, I don’t like this play anymore. With the board paired and me acting first, I think calling was the wrong idea. But that is what I did.)

The river was interesting. The 2s. Hmmmm. It sure felt like this was a perfect steal opportunity. Js Jd 2h 3h 2s. Everything was perfect. Or was it? Here was my thinking when the 2 came on the river. First, the obvious... Brutal, why wasn’t that the 6h? Then I double-checked that the 44,300 really had to go to one of the other guys before I checked. I wasn’t taking it down with my ten high, that was for sure. Maybe I could still win this pot.

Let’s see... Alaei was up to no good, right? He doesn’t have a jack. Does he? With two jacks on the board, the chances he has one are small. Also, he raised pre-flop. Probably A-Q or K-Q or something. He tends to bet his monsters on the flop, so I think he would have bet a jack or full house then. He was probably just taking a stab on the turn. But wait, Negreanu called the turn. Why did he call? Ooops. He might have had a flush draw, as well. Wow, Phil, if he was also on a flush draw then your call on the turn was hopeless. Whatever. Stay on track, Phil, stay on track. Negreanu didn’t raise on the turn, so he was probably trying to get to the river with a hand that beat Alaei but couldn’t take much heat. Either a missed draw or pocket eights or something. Would all the action have made sense if I had, let’s say, 10c Jc? I think it just might. Sure, I don’t raise the turn, as I am afraid that I am out-kicked. Now I have top full house and therefore I bet.

There is just one problem. If I pull the trigger here, I still have to fade Alaei and Negreanu figuring out what I am up to. But won’t it be hard for them to call? As long as neither one has a two or a jack, I think it will work. It will be especially hard for Alaei to call, as he still has to sweat Negreanu’s hand. In the end, it just didn’t feel like I was up against a jack. But I could easily have a jack.

Oh boy, please don’t let one of them have a jack. Please let my read be right. So there I was... cutting out $36,000. It seemed like the perfect amount, right? The pot has 44,300 in it and I want to get called. (Not really, I only have a ten-high, but I am trying to sell that with the medium/large sized bet.)

Now here is where the hand got off-the-map wacky. Alaei goes into the tank. He somehow knows that I am full of it, and he is considering a call with KING HIGH. YES, YOU HEARD THAT RIGHT. KING HIGH! I made a classic mistake. Do not bluff telepaths. I got so engrossed in the hand that I forgot that I was playing a telepath. Arghghghghgh. He was not sweating me to sweat me. He was thinking. And some part of him knew. He was teetering. He wanted to call, but was finding it difficult to justify a kinghigh call for $36,000. I could taste how close he was, and trust me, it was very salty. Fold, fold, fold, was my mantra. No good. So then I started to imagine the 10-J of clubs in my hand. Minutes pass. Time standing still. Wow. I am going to lose this hand to a higher nothing? How can he call? He can’t call, can he? Well, an eternity passed and I was never so relieved when he finally folded. Negreanu also folded, and the pot was mine. My biggest successful cash game bluff. It was insane. Kudos to Alaei for getting so close to finding a call on that one. It would have been the greatest call ever, and if you only knew how close he came. Phew.