My WSOP Nightmare
Sometimes you get the money in with the best hand and it doesn’t work out. On other days you suck out on the river and scoop the pot. Either way, it’s part of poker – even in the World Series of Poker Main Event. But my trip to Las Vegas for this year’s WSOP ended on a disappointing note, and it had little to do with the luck of my cards. My Main Event starts promisingly. I take my seat on Day 1B and after taking down a nice hand with a set of aces in the fi rst few minutes, I quickly settle into my rhythm and am among the chip leaders when I take out another player with a set of queens. I fi nish the day with 76,050, above the chip average and confi dent of going deep.
Incredibly, I start Day 2 at the same table as my good mate Shane Warne and when our table breaks we are moved to the same table again! By the end of the day, just 466 of the 1251 players who started that morning are still in the fi eld. I am sitting on a stack of 145,100 and feeling good about Day 3, when the entire fi eld will come together for the fi rst time. We are down to about 715 players when things go pear-shaped. Early on Day 3 (with my stack up over 200,000), I look down to fi nd Kc Qc but the dealer fails to allow the player in the big blind to act before dealing the fl op. There are three players in the hand including myself. The player that didnft act goes absolutely ballistic. The tournament director is called and a decision is made to reshuffl e the fl op cards back into the deck. At this stage Ifm ready to fold my hand but advised not to by the tournament director.
The reshuffl ed fl op comes down 9c Ks Jc. I was second to speak so I bet out after the big blind checked. The player to my left raises, big blind folds, I push all in and get a call. The player shows Qd 10s and the new fl op has given him the nuts! The turn card (Qh) gives me more outs but the river card is a blank and Ifm down to just over 120,000 and badly on tilt. Barely fi fteen minutes later, I fi nd Ac Qc and raise from middle position. Therefs a reraise and I ask the (same) dealer for a total chip count and he says, gA further 55,000 to 60,000 more,h so I push all in. It turns out my opponent has 110,000 chips plus pocket aces. Now Ifm down to just over 10,000!
At this point I was furious. I pleaded my case to the dealer and the tournament staff. It was a calculation error made by the dealer and I took his word for it. Now, if I had known that my opponent had over 100,000, my A-Q goes straight to the muck without a shadow of a doubt. The dealer was very apologetic to say the least and complained to all that were sitting at my table that he had been overworked for the past six weeks. I mean, his apology would have been accepted if we were playing in a home game or a charity event. But we were playing in the biggest poker event in the world, a multi-million dollar tournament.
Players from all over the world travel far and beyond to be part of this great event. Mistakes like these should not be allowed to determine the outcome of a player’s tournament. Those who govern the event need to take responsibility for the performance of their dealers to ensure that situations like what happened to me are avoided. In my experience, it seems like better preparation and shorter shifts will keep preventable dealer interference to a minimum. Don’t get me wrong, we need these dealers and everybody that respects our beloved game of poker must also have respect for the dealers, players, and all of the staff. Without all these people we wouldn’t get to play at all.
Soon after the disastrous A-Q hand, I move all in with pocket sevens and there are two callers. The board runs out 2c 5d 2h Kc 4d, and A-K takes it down. From hero to zero in just 25 minutes! I was in no hurry as I was only about thirty spots away from the money! These were fundamental errors that should not be happening at this level, period!
