Flight 2 Underway
Potential in progress
Sometimes it's impossible to determine whether it's more intimidating
to look across a room full of people who want your money, or across
a seemingly endless expanse of felt at the one guy who wants everything
in front of you.
In this room, in this flight, the intimidation seemed impossibly strong
on both sides. World Class Players sat elbow to elbow with people
who had never played in a live tournament. And under the din of shuffling
cards and riffling chips, a trained ear could hear it humming: potential,
an engine with more cylinders than syllables.
Mike and Glenn, experts of the floor
With controlled choas purring at every table, Mike, Glenn and the
rest of their colleagues made the engine run as smoothly as it could.
Careful players, straining against early bust outs, kept the tournament
running longer than intended. Dinner reservations suffered the second
greatest fate, falling only behind the 85 bust-outs that found themselves
with more time to spend on the beach than they wanted.
The room popped with screams of anguish and celebration, and at some
point, NBA star Rick Fox came in and signed up for some $20/$40 Hold'em.
When that wasn't open, he sat down at a $100 Sit & Go tournament.
Who says poker isn't the great equalizer?
David Williams, second place finisher at last year's WSOP Main Event
played strong all day, stacking up then stacking off to finish the
day with more than double his startinig stack.
The man who bested him in the WSOP built a tremendous stack, in the
words of one table mate "getting the respect he deserves." When his
table finally broke, he ran into a massive hand and lost around half
his stack, reportedly to John Smith, the current chip leader. Still,
Raymer's sitting with more than triple his original stack.
Just about anyone who I've talked to who has played with Raymer has
indicated he's an affable guy who doesn't mind offering advice to
younger players. I think he made a friend in Jon Rasool, the young
player from Toronto. Rasool is sitting on a shortened stack, but has
survived until Saturday.
That's more than can be said for some of the better-known pros. Isabelle
Mercier, Carlos Mortensen, and Tom McEvoy all busted out today. None
of them seemed to be catching cards and their moves weren't working.
Still, some of their fellow World Class Players are still in contention.
Josh Scheln (sdouble) found himself sitting next to WSOP champ Chris
Moneymaker today after Moneymaker's table broke. Moneymaker spent
most of the day stacking up at what was the de facto "featured table"
because it was the closest table to the rail that hosted a celebrity
player. Moreover, a TV crew from Nashville came down to profile him
and spent several hours shooting b-roll of the table while Moneymaker
chatted up his opponents.
By the end of the day, though, Schlen found himself faring better
than Moneymaker. Both of them head into Saturday with decent stacks.
Try as I might, I couldn't help but gravitate back to the least assuming
of the tables in the room. Table #1 also sat close to the rail, but
wasn't home to any of the players that got the railbirds hooting.
Still, I couldn't keep my eyes off a man the online players know as
broomcorn.
Dan Alspach's shirt, a flowing mess of cat and kitten prints, drew
my eye every time I walked by. I might've been able to avert my gaze
if he hadn't been wearing a matching visor. When I kneeled down to
check his stack, I made a joke about being familiar with his uncle.
Then I noticed he'd amassed a stack bigger than forty grand and I
decided I'd quit with the joking.
Toward the end of the final day's level, a whoop-hollar broke through
the room and sent me hopping toward Table #5.
When I made it to the table, Maurice Hawkins was still in full celebration,
good-naturedly mumbling "ship it."
A table-mate said, seriously, "I thought you were alseep."
I completely missed the hand, but I think Maurice was holding AKs
and hit his flush on the river. Maybe the turn. He may want to correct
me later. Two hands later he folded AKo to a small raise without blinking.
"Can't do it twice," he said.
As the final minutes ticked off the clock, I madly made my way around
the the tables trying to tally a quick unofficial leaderboard (for
all the good it did me). I ran into Seung Yoo who had just worked
his way into third place with a stack of more than $41,000.
A buddy of his, in perhaps an homage to the movie "Swingers" said
something to the effect of "Little boy's all grown up" and have Yoo
a playful shake.
This, friends, is what it's all about: potential in progress. No one
knows what the next few days will hold in terms of chips, cards, beats,
and wins. Tonight, though, 116 players are going to bed knowing they
are still alive.
And alive in the Bahamas is a good thing to be.
Good luck to all the Flight #2 players who start in just about ten
hours.
An afternoon on the Flight #2 floor
Every tendon, every muscle in every back in this room has tensed
up, in the words of Seinfeld's J. Peterman, "into one giant
monkey-fist."
By the end of level two today, the dozens of dealers here had
been dealing for three straight days.
Meg Patrick, dealer coordinator and resident mother-figure to
all the dealers, tranformed herself into stretch coordinator
for five minutes, taking her dealers through a routine designed
to unclench the monkey-fists and restore her dealers to relative
loose-ness.
Former Foxwood's dealer, Susan, participated along with the
rest of the crew. I can't gauge the how loose they are now,
but I feel better for just having watched. I'm going to have
to ask Meg if I can get in on the next routine.
I spent the afternoon on the floor tracking the chips as they
moved from player to player. The early-afternoon care had not
vanished completely, but there was some evidence the players
were starting to loosen up a bit. Maybe the stretch routine
had something to do with that.
Table 14
The ten-seat eyed his table. "Level 3 is the quiet level," he
said. Negreanu had been stacking up at the table, showing down
good hands, and the action had started to dry up a little.
It had gotten so quiet that pro player, Yosh Nakano had started
a project at the table. At first I thought he might be taking
notes on the players. Then I looked closer. Surely not, I thought.
I mean, the action had died down some, but the table hadn't
died.
Sure enough, upon closer inspection, I discovered Yosh was filling
out postcards to send back home. . I considered asking if he'd
take the time to send one to my wife, kid, and family back home.
I certainly didn't have the time. About the time I thought to
ask, he got involved in a hand and I decided it was probably
best to leave him alone.
Still, I continued to watch the table as Negreanu got involved
in a raised pot with one other player. The board showed AKx
with two diamonds after the flop. Both players checked. Another
diamond fell on the turn and Negreanu bet the pot, forcing his
opponent to lay down his hand.
With something resembling glee, Negreanu flipped up 23o and
giggled, "Three-high."
The table took with good spirits, and Negreanu's eventual explanation
was unnecessary.
"I've been showing the nuts too many times," he said. "Okay,
that's my bluff for the day."
Table 3
Gavin Griffen, made famous in a broadcast of a WSOP tournament
last year, was having a pretty good day and had amassed a few
chips. I eavesdropped on some of his tablemates as they discussed
his play.
A railbird said, "this guy thinks he's a pro but he's giving
away all his chips."
I remembered Griffen's play from the WSOP, hyper-agressive to
the point that his opponents got nervous when he limped into
a pot.
I'd
actually come over to the table to take a picture of Mr. Funny
Hat (I never got his name). He'd found a way to turn a cowboy
hat into a visor and that was fashion I had to document.
As I started watching, he got involved in a hand with Griffen.
The flop came down 623 with two spades. Mr. Funny Hat bet into
Griffen. Griffen cold-called. The turn was a four of diamonds.
Mr. Funny Hat checked to Griffen who put Funny Hat all in.
They tabled their hands. Funny hat had 22 for a set. Griffen
turned up 55 for a turned straight.
Table Ten
Josh Arieh was down to four hundred chips from his original
10,000 stack. I don't know how he got there. It happened fast.
And by the time I got back to his table, he'd somehow rebuilt
his stack to almost 9000. I was amazed, and frankly, impressed
that he'd rebuilt so much so fast.
With the blinds at 100/200, an early-position player raised
to around 1200. Arieh re-raised immediately, making it 2500.
The nine-seat thought for a moment or two and announced all-in.
The blinds folded, as did the first raiser.
Arieh went in the tank. And started talking.
"I've laid this hand down once before in my whole life," he
said.
He might as well have said, "I'm holding kings over here."
He put his fingers on his cards in a familiar "I'm about to
muck" motion, then eyed his opponent. He must have seen something,
because he put his chips back on his cards and thought some
more.
He said something about hating to call dead after building back
from 400. A valid concern, I suppose. After a raise, and a re-raise,
it seemed likely his opponent had aces.
Finally, Arieh mucked, flipping his cards up. A king hit the
table as another card fluttered into a player's lap. I didn't
have to see it. I knew it was a king.
I was hoping his opponent would turn up aces, just so I could
tell the story as I predicted it.
His opponent, Steve (aka ackbleh), tabled his hand.
Queens.
I don't think I made too much of a noise, but I have to imagine
the sound in Arieh's head sounded like Atlanta traffic at 4:30pm
on Friday afternoon.
Later, I ran into "ackbleh" and asked him about the hand.
Humbly, he said, "Don't make me sound smart. I didn't have him
on kings."
***
There are still more than 180 players left in Flight #2. And
I just watched a guy call a 4000 all-in bet with a heart flush
on the board, one card to come, no hearts in a his hand, and
no more than an inside straight draw and a over-card. If his
opponent had the flush, he was drawing dead. If not, he had
seven outs (if his opponent wasn't on a flush draw).
Yeah, he hit his gutter.
Poker is quite a game.
Prize Pool
And I thought yesterday was biggish.
We started yesterday with Flight #1 and 201 players. We winnowed
it down to 116. Then, by the time today rolled around, Fight
#2 had grown to 260 players. That puts the total number of participants
at 461.
***
Tournament director, Mike Ward, wandered through a few minutes
ago with the final player-count. He did some quick math to determine
an estimated (stress...estimated) payout structure.
50-80th place--$11,426
31-50th place--$12,985
26-30th place--$15,501
21-25th place--17,312
17-20th place--$20,775
13-16th place--$25,968
12th place--$34,000
11th place--$45,000
10th place--$55,300
9th place--$65,700
8th place--$77,900
7th place--$91,700
---FINAL TABLE---
6th place--$112,0005th place--$155,800
4th place--$207,700
3rd place-- $311,600
2nd place--$484,700
First place--$865,607 + Seat in WPT Championship
***
We're about to start Level #3. About 25-30 people have busted
out so far. It's looking like we'll be working long into the
night again.
Which is fun as all get out, by the way.
