My Las Vegas Experience and the WPT!!!

It's every young poker players dream to one day play in one of the big tournaments with all the pro's. Sitting across from poker greatness. This dream came true faster than I would have expected for me. All thanks to Poker Mountain.

It's a new poker site run by some great people, and sponsored by Daniel Negreanu and TJ Cloutier. I am a member of the Full Contact Poker forum, which is Daniel Negreanu's personal site, and it's the best forum on the internet in my opinion. Well being a member I was priveledged to get a lot of information about his ventures before most people. Well Poker Mountain was one of them. He said it's a great site, and although they are still growing, they are run by some of the best people, and will be huge if you give them time. Trusting his opinion, I went to sign up there during beta testing and thought the software was nice. Sleek and fast, and less busy looking than so many places you see. Finally they opened up for real money play, and I deposited a little bit to try it out.

Well when you first deposited on the site, they gave you a 100% deposit bonus as well as an entry into a $25 Road to Bellagio Sit N Go tournament entry. If you won this tournament, you would win entry into the $200 buy-in final. This was a final to gain entry into the World Poker Tour Championship at the Bellagio, with a $25,000 entry fee. Arguably one of the two biggest tournaments in the world. Well I managed to win the Sit N Go. Daniel Negreanu was even in it with me. He got 9th I believe after he bluffed off all his chips with AQ. After that, I had to wait about 2 months for the big final. I got in plenty of play between the tournaments, and had improved quite a bit in this time, but I was still pretty nervous about the tournament, because only one person was going to win the seat. When it finally came time to play, there was 133 people I had to contend with to win. Somehow though, I managed to make a comeback from 2,500 chips with blinds at 250/500 and actually make the final table. I was surprised to hear they were going to pay something to the whole final table, and it was a nice extra, considering they didn't tell us they were going to pay anyone else. Once I made the final table, I had about 15k in chips, but 2 chip leaders had over 60k. Lucky for me they were being very agressive with them, and even getting into big pots with each other. After I doubled up and won a few pots, and a couple people busted out, I was down to the final 4 or 5. One of the big stacks busted to the other, and they were still playing recklessly. I knew I just needed a few more chips, and to make it heads up with anyone who was left. Then I did. I started heads up with about a 2-1 chip disadvantage, but I felt fine about it. I slowly wore him down and took a lead, and I think eventually he got impatient and tried to make too much happen without good cards. I ended up winning with 2 pair over his one, and won the tournament. Talk about shock! I thought I was going to be gone much earlier when I was the shortstack in the tournament, yet somehow I came back to win. It was unbelievable.

Not only did I win entry into the WPT Championship a week later. I won airfare out to Vegas, and got to stay at the Bellagio. Even better than that; I got a strategy session with Daniel Negreanu and TJ Cloutier!! This was just surreal. Two of the biggest names in the poker world. One having won more tournaments than anyone, and the other who in his lifetime will probably compete for that title.

Poker Mountain was nice enough to let my girlfriend Brigette come along with me and even come to the dinner with Daniel and TJ. Which was a nice surprise and very nice of them. We flew out of Chicago on saturday afternoon, and got into Vegas around 4pm. Paul Westley picked us up from the airport and took us over to the Bellagio. We got checked in and went up to our room which was great. The whole hotel was amazing, you couldn't beleive it if I told you. It's the type of place you just need to see. Once we got there we met Diego Cordovez, who is a poker player himself, but also the organizer for the whole promotion to give me this great experience. He helped me make sure that my buy-in for the tournament was all set, and I got my table assignment and was all set for monday.

That night was the dinner with Daniel and TJ, so we went up to get ready and put on some nicer clothes. The restaurant we went to was unbelieveable. A very nice place within the Bellagio called Michael Mina. Once we got there, we met up with Paul and Diego, as well as Daniel. TJ was still involved in the super sattelite to gain entry into the tournament I would be playing on monday. We had an unbelievable dinner, and I got to chat with Daniel about some key concepts to keep in mind during the tournament. We also had some great conversations about poker and some of the characters in the poker world. Daniel is quite a character and it was a real pleasure to be able to have this experience. TJ managed to win a seat in his super sattelite and joined us in time for dessert. He was also a great guy. As was his wife who made it for dinner as well. He had some good stories to tell, and made the night a great experience. We ended dinner and were taking a few pictures together outside of the restaurant in the Bellagio garden. As we were taking the pictures, there must have been 5 or 6 people in the background taking pictures as well. It was pretty funny seeing all the flash bulbs off, and then Daniel says "welcome to my world". I can't even imagine going through that every day, but it's pretty exciting, and as strange as it may be, I can still hope that I will be on that level some day.

I had sunday to roam around and explore Vegas a bit, and that's what I did. I met up with Dale, a fellow member of FullContactPoker and he showed us around a bit, and we found a poker game to play over at the Flamingo. Just a little 2/4 game, which was pretty insane. If you play online and think the players are crazy, just try playing some 2/4 at the casino. You had better be ready to see 8 players to every flop and forget about raising someone out, it's not going to happen. Had a good time though, and ended the day up a little bit. Enough to pay for the buffet at least. After that we headed back to the hotel and I wanted to make sure to relax and get plenty of sleep before the tournament.

I woke up monday morning feeling good, but also pretty nervous. I still wasn't sure who was at my table and could only imagine who it might be. We had breakfast and I made my way over to the tournament. Finally got into my seat after exchanging some good luck's with TJ and only half the table was there. A few showed up late and it ended up being a pretty tough table. The first reconizable face was David Oppenheim, who was on my immediate left. Talk about a bad draw. Then Mickey Appleman was sitting 2 to my right. Alan Boston sat down a minute later on his right, and across the table was Robert Mizrachi, the brother of "The Grinder", Michael Mizrachi, both of whom are great new up and coming players. This was a tough enough table as it was, then walks in Gus Hansen. What a table. Definitely exciting though.

The tournament started out pretty well though. I won a few hands early and got in the positive and was over my 50k starting point, which is all I could hope for. Then just before the 2nd break I took a nice pot off Gus and one other player when I turned a full house. I missed a bet on the river, but it was still a pretty nice pot. Put me just over 60k and I was feeling real good. Then David Oppenheim came along. He took two pretty large pots off of me, once I had AQ, flopped top pair Queens and he was holding KK. The other he check-raised me on nothing but a flush draw, and hit it on the river. Took me down near 20k in chips going into level 4. Ante's and blinds were starting to get a little damaging to my stack, and I figured once I was down to 18k, I needed to find a good hand and try to double up somewhere.

Then I found it. I picked up J10 in the big blind. A middle position player limped in, as did Boston behind him, the small blind folded and I checked to see a flop. The flop was QKA rainbow. Talk about a good spot!! I couldn't have wished for a much better flop. I was first to act so I checked, as did the 2nd player, and Boston bet out about 1200. I called as did the other player. No need to push them off a hand at this point. The turn is another Ace though. Now this card is good and bad. I am quite sure they don't have AK or AQ. Either one would have raised from the position they are in preflop with those hands. But I check again to see what happens. Boston bets it again, this time a little over 3000. He seemed a little confused why we checked again, and didn't seem to want to play his hand slow, which made it pretty apparent it wasn't a full house. I decided I didn't want to risk him improving his hand any more, so I pushed all in for my last 16,500. The second player quickly folded, and Boston thought about it for awhile. I knew I had the best hand at this point and didn't want to mess around with it anymore. Finally he makes a call, and David Oppenheim asks me if I have the straight, which I did and I turned it over. Boston turns over A9 for trip aces, and needs help on the river. Well the river brings another King, and he fills his boat. Knocking me out of the tournament in the process. Definitely not what I was hoping to see. To say the least.

It was pretty tough to swallow this outcome. I felt I was playing pretty well, and just ran into a few tough hands where I lost a few too many chips. Then I flop the nuts, and runner-runner takes me down. Depressing is probably not a strong enough word. I was numb for awhile after that beat. Wasn't sure how to react really, but I had to keep in mind that I made the right play, and there wasn't anything I could do about it. Eventually I got my head straight again, and decided I need to go out and enjoy Vegas while I could.

It was a pretty tough beat, and I really wish I could have come home with some money, which I really thought was possible. But this was still one of the greatest experiences I've ever had. How many people dream of playing in a WPT event? Much less the championship. I have only been playing poker for 7 months now, and really who would expect that I could make it to something this huge so fast? Some players have been playing for years and can't say they have played an event this big. I just hope that I can return sometime soon, to a similar event, but come home with some money. Maybe win one someday even. But you can be sure I won't stop trying. If you think you have a poker bug now, just try sitting across the table from Gus Hansen for a few hours, mixing it up with the best. Then see how much more you really want it. It's a taste of greatness, and it leaves you wanting more. I definitely will be back, and I will have learned from everything along the way. All you can really do is continue to learn, and improve. That's the beauty of poker. Even someone like me can do well at it. All you need to do is want it bad enough. Trust me though, nothing makes you want it more than an experience like this. The first time you get re-raised by Gus Hansen, or the first time you check-raise David Oppenheim. These things will stay with you, and feed the hunger to get a chance to do it again. But next time with the intentions of coming out on top.