Monday, June 06, 2005
Who Said I Was Dead Money?
A friend of mine, Susan T. Austin, was having trouble with her holdem game a few months ago, and I spent a little time with her on the phone, gave her some tips. played with her online a couple of times, and gave her some more tips. Since then she's won a qualifier to the World Series of Poker main event, and she decided to go play in one of the preliminary events a couple of days ago. With her permission, I'm posting the text of her email to me here. (The title of this post was also the title of her email.)
i flew to vegas over the weekend to play in the World Series of Poker $1500 buy-in no-limit tournament.
a girlfriend wanted to play in a few of the satellite tournaments to try and win a seat in the main event, and i said, why not?
figured it would be great practice for the main event in july.
and was it ever....
i think i saw every major name poker at this tournament.
phil ivey
phil helmuth
scott fischman
howard lederer
chris ferguson
brunson's son was there, but didn't see doyle
annie duke (i outlasted her)
i could go on and on....
here's a quick update of how the event went....
there were 2305 players.
we played 11 handed on the tables and only had 1500 in chips to start. (v. 10,000 for the main event)
i played the most intense poker of my life and finished 131 out of the field.
every time i went all-in i was literally shaking all over. even when i knew in my bones i had the best hand...i couldn't help it. it was nerve wracking.
i ended up grinding it out at the end and ended up in the money! (they paid the top 200 spots)
i was paid $2865 (which i think boiled down to minimum wage. or at least it felt like it)actually i was over the moon finishing in the money. (i can now officially say i played in a tournament with phil ivey and beat him. lol)
you can see my name on the results page at card player:
http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-tournaments/event.php?id=2322&screen=result
the event itself is grueling.
played till 2 oclock in the morning....
i ended up getting knocked out with pocket 10's against some jerk who called me with K7 off suit. he had no business calling me, cept he had chips to lose.
he of course caught a K on the flop and my tournament was over.
i learned loads re: strategy for the main event.
i know a lot of folks say they never got good cards...but i really had the most amazing dry spell of cards.
played for 13 hours and never once saw pocket aces or queens. only got AK twice and KK twice, JJ once and the 10's i went out on.
it was really strange how few good starting cards i got.
which in a way helped me, as i never went all in and lost with my pocket queens as i saw a bunch of people bust out on.
i ended up moving tables 8 times in the 13 hours, which i found extremely rustrating.
as soon as i would start to get to know a table, etc. it was moving time again.
my friend played for 12 hours and never changed tables once.
(i think that's why i never got the great cards, as soon as i started warming up on a table it was time to move again)
i know the main event with 6600 folks is different than 2300, but i'm encouraged nevertheless.
s
As much as I would love to take a little bit of credit for Susan's success, she did all the hard work herself. I'm looking forward to seeing her at the final table of the main event in July.
i flew to vegas over the weekend to play in the World Series of Poker $1500 buy-in no-limit tournament.
a girlfriend wanted to play in a few of the satellite tournaments to try and win a seat in the main event, and i said, why not?
figured it would be great practice for the main event in july.
and was it ever....
i think i saw every major name poker at this tournament.
phil ivey
phil helmuth
scott fischman
howard lederer
chris ferguson
brunson's son was there, but didn't see doyle
annie duke (i outlasted her)
i could go on and on....
here's a quick update of how the event went....
there were 2305 players.
we played 11 handed on the tables and only had 1500 in chips to start. (v. 10,000 for the main event)
i played the most intense poker of my life and finished 131 out of the field.
every time i went all-in i was literally shaking all over. even when i knew in my bones i had the best hand...i couldn't help it. it was nerve wracking.
i ended up grinding it out at the end and ended up in the money! (they paid the top 200 spots)
i was paid $2865 (which i think boiled down to minimum wage. or at least it felt like it)actually i was over the moon finishing in the money. (i can now officially say i played in a tournament with phil ivey and beat him. lol)
you can see my name on the results page at card player:
http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-tournaments/event.php?id=2322&screen=result
the event itself is grueling.
played till 2 oclock in the morning....
i ended up getting knocked out with pocket 10's against some jerk who called me with K7 off suit. he had no business calling me, cept he had chips to lose.
he of course caught a K on the flop and my tournament was over.
i learned loads re: strategy for the main event.
i know a lot of folks say they never got good cards...but i really had the most amazing dry spell of cards.
played for 13 hours and never once saw pocket aces or queens. only got AK twice and KK twice, JJ once and the 10's i went out on.
it was really strange how few good starting cards i got.
which in a way helped me, as i never went all in and lost with my pocket queens as i saw a bunch of people bust out on.
i ended up moving tables 8 times in the 13 hours, which i found extremely rustrating.
as soon as i would start to get to know a table, etc. it was moving time again.
my friend played for 12 hours and never changed tables once.
(i think that's why i never got the great cards, as soon as i started warming up on a table it was time to move again)
i know the main event with 6600 folks is different than 2300, but i'm encouraged nevertheless.
s
As much as I would love to take a little bit of credit for Susan's success, she did all the hard work herself. I'm looking forward to seeing her at the final table of the main event in July.
Who Said I Was Dead Money? posted by Randy Ray @ Monday, June 06, 2005 
