Paid in Full (251 hits)
Category: UberMadness! EntryRating: 2 on 3 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by DonovanMD <Dmacd58.at.telus.net> (View user info) at 2005-07-17 07:20:37 EDT
This post was an official UberMadness! entry. Click here to view the original matchup.
"So son, what are you taking?"
The blonde in the gray dress suit smiles at me as she fills out the paperwork in a flurry of clattering keys.
"Bio-physics, ma'am. I'd like to work in a lab. My dream is to cure cancer."
The blonde looks up and smiles a big "awww isn't that cute" sort of smile and says, "Well, you just study hard and I'm sure you'll achieve great things!"
Eat shit.
"Thank you ma'am. I sure will." I proclaim back.
The blonde reaches over and takes the handful of pages printing off and staples them together, hands them to me and says, "You just have to sign here, here, here and here. Oh and right here. And initial right here."
I smile and take the pen, scrawling my sloppy signature next to each X. I thank the blonde woman and walk out of the bank.
**
My flight lands in Vegas just before midnight. Its the evening of July 6th and I check into my hotel, the Best Western Mardi Gras Suites and Casino. I had googled "cheap Vegas hotels" last month and this was what came up. The website had proudly proclaimed to me "The famous Las Vegas Strip is just a short walk or free shuttle away. Located one block south of the Las Vegas Convention Center."
I check into my room. Shower, order room service and flip through sportscenter until 3 am and then try, to no avail, to get some sleep.
**
The Rio isn't the flashiest Casino on the strip. Its not Caesars Palace, The Stardust or The MGM Grand. They have Penn and Teller, not Tom Jones, Celine Dion or Elton John. But I don't give a shit about that. I'm not here to see shows. The Rio is the one casino I've been dreaming about for years. I walk up the street from my hotel and to the front doors and take a look around.
I've always loved the feel of casinos. Back home they didn't have anything like this though. This is Vegas! The bright lights, the sound, the look. The clinging of slot machines and the beautiful women.
I'm only 22, but I've been in casinos for years. The legal age is only 18 where I come from. I've learned some of life's best lessons cutting class and hanging out at the card tables. One lesson I recall is don't bet what you cant afford to lose. Call me foolhardy then, I guess I didn't learn as much as I thought. The money order in my pocket is supposed to be going towards schooling this fall. But I just cant cut it. School isn't for me. I'm not a bio-chemist, that's just the bullshit disguised as a feel good story I like to feed dumb blondes in expensive suits. Truth is I'm a journalism drop out. My grades were shit and I have no intentions of going back for the final year.
The way I see it, I'll pumping gas or driving a truck this fall anyway. I may as well take the last opportunity I may get to really do something I want to.
**
The sound of millions of chips being stacked, exchanged and fingered with is deafening. The room is full of nearly two thousand excitable adult-children. This is their playground. Mine too. This is day one of the 2005 World Series of Poker and I have to beat out 1500 other people to see the main event next Monday. Its split into 3 groups of roughly 2000 each and the 500 who advance from each group will continue.
The first hand is dealt.
I fold a 10 2 suited. I'm no Doyle Brunson.
This time I'm dealt an A 8 off suit. I call the 50 dollar big blind. The flop shows K Q 4 and one guy bets $500 already. I fold again. Early on the blinds are 25-50, so I can see a minimum of 10 hands for only 75 chips. Early on I can play the style I like best. I tend to play conservative, but when I'm in a pot I go after it aggressively.
Its working pretty well for me. Going into the second half of day one, I'm in a terrific position with $29k. I'm down from where I was though after the key hand of the day comes around.
The table folds to the small blind and myself. He calls while I check with the four and eight of hearts. The flop comes K-8-4 with no flush draw. He immediately bets out $1,400. The small blind is another young guy about my age and he looks to be tilting after having lost several large pots. I quickly call with my pair.
The turn is an eight, giving me trips. He checks to me, and I check as well. Im sure that I'm ahead and that he might be drawing dead and I don't want to scare him with a bet. The river is a queen, and I expect him to bluff since I'd checked on the turn. He bets $1,800 as expected, so I raise him up to $5,000, hoping he'll call me with a king or a queen. Instead, he re-raises me $6,500 more!
I know with certainty that I'm beat. But I'm not sure how. I mistakenly take the route of bad poker players everywhere and look for a reason to call. When I do, he turns over pocket queens. He had made a full house on the river.
I'll remember this guffa for the main event though. I made it through day one.
**
Its Monday.
Less than 10% of the 5,619 players in this years World Series are straight $10,000 buy ins. Most guys are sponsored and very few pay right out of their own pockets. Less than 2% of the those straight buy in players make it to the main event. I'm one of them. There's still nearly 2000 players all battling for the 650 spots that payout. Whether you come in 651st or dead last, you win the same amount. Nothing.
Day two will see that 2000 drop to 500. My goal is to stick around as long as possible and at least break even. Then again, that's everybody's goal.
I start my day doing alright, I'm up from 29k to around 45k. But a couple of bad goofs here and there and I'm back to 34k. There's a short break and the tables are re-aligned. I sit down at my new table and exchange pleasantries with everyone. Across from me is a stocky Asian guy. His nickname is The Orient Express. I'm sitting across from Johnny Chan.
Johnny Chan is one of only 3 players in poker history to win back to back World Series. His came in 87-88. I fold and watch a lot the first hour, watching Johnny go back and forth with this Australian chap Hachem. Johnny's doing well, but Hachem is really holding his own. After another table shuffle Hachem is moved. I ask Johnny why he folded his pocket Qs when Hachem raised him all in and he had high pair on the board.
"Because someone else called. I might have considered it if it was just him, he probably only had the tens. But when it's a three way call, I'll sit it out and wait until next time. Pokers mostly luck kid, despite what the so called experts will tell you. And when you've won this thing before, let alone twice, people gun for you. People want to be able to go home and tell their friends and neighbors and everybody that they knocked off Johnny Chan in the World Series. Even if they did finish out of the money. Nah, I'll wait on it."
I nod, trying to look thoughtful. But really because Johnny Chan is sitting here candidly telling me something between hands and I don't know what to say. My tongue is stuck to the roof of my mouth.
**
Its down to 670 people. The air is filled with nervous excitement and the betting has eased off a bit. No one wants to be that guy, the guy who busts out just before the money. But the blinds are bigger and forcing some people to play hands they don't necessarily want to play.
I have AA in the hole. I try and look non chalant. I don't wear sunglasses or a hoodie pulled tight, just a simple blue LA Dodgers baseball cap low over my eyes.
I call, slow playing to keep everyone in. Two more call me.
The flop shows Kc 4h Qs.
I bet $2000.
The bets to Johnny Chan, who calls my bet and raises me $10,000. The second guy folds.
Johnny smiles at me a bit as if to ask, "So kid, do you have the nuts?"
I ponder my position. He could have two pair. Or possible trips on a pocket pair. Either way that beats my aces. Then again, Johnny has a smaller stack. He may be trying to steal the blinds.
"All in," I state. A crowd, and the TV cameras, start to gather.
Johnny sits eyeing me. He has another 15k or so. My all in is a raise of nearly 20k. At this point with so few players remaining until the money cutoff, the tables are at hand for hand play. Meaning that the dealers wait until every table is complete before continuing the next hand, keeping it fair on those who may bust out at any moment. We're at the last table waiting to finish this hand. Johnnys been paused a long time now and we're waiting on the camera crews to get in position to film the possible all in with Johnny Chan. This is the part you don't see on TV. Nothings live, it will all be edited for TV later and beamed into your home on ESPN.
I cant read Johnny at all. His body language says nothing. He's as cool as the other side of the pillow.
"I fold."
I sigh and reel in the pot. I just took ten thousand off Johnny Chan on an all in call. I know what he means now, about people wanting to call him. To knock off a legend.
The dealer go's around and I peek at my hole cards.
AcQd
I'm first position after the big blind and call and raise $1000. The call goes to the fella next to me, a guy in a hoodie. He calls. The bet goes to Johnny Chan. He looks up at me and proclaims, "All-in. $15,475."
I'm a little taken aback. I look at Johnny, he's got that half smirk on his face and is giving me the major stink eye. I sigh and run a hand across my face, looking up at the crowd in the gallery, the cameras, the other players at the table watching intently. And I realize again that we're the last table waiting to play in the hand for hand round.
I look at Johnny again and call. He smiled a bit wider and the bet went to the guy next to me, the guy in the hoodie.
"All in." he says. Now the crowds really buzzing.
The guy in the hoodie has raised me nearly 20k more, all I got.
My gut feeling says fold. But my mouth says, "I call. All in."
The pots nearly 80 thousand. I've never seen this sort of money in one place before and the prospect of leaving all of it, or the clay composite equivalent of it, up to the luck of the draw both scares and excites me. I'm flushed and nervous. Johnny's sitting their looking as calm and collected as ever.
I show my pocket AcQd. The guy in the hoodie shows KK and Johnny shows 2 4 of spades. He finally lets down his shield and says to me, sounding a little exhasperated, "What a time to try and steal the blinds huh? Damn three way calls."
I swallow hard and reply back, "Yeah."
The dealer burns and turns the flop.
Js Ah 4c.
I have the high pair. The hoodie guy needs a K and Johnny needs 4 or two spades.
The dealer shows the turn.
7s.
Little has changed. I'm high pair with aces, the guy in the hoodie still needs his K and Johnny's now on a flush draw looking for a spade.
I hold my breath without noticing. The crowd quiets and the tension builds. The dealer burns and holds the deck and top card for a moment that ages me ten years. Johnny sits still, staring at the deck as if to will a spade to the top.
The river shows a King of spades. Fate was dealing from the bottom of the deck.
I let out a sigh of bitter disappointment as the crowd gasps at the shocking finish of the hand. The guy in the hoodie pumps his first in celebration, doubling up on the side pot. Johnny Chan quietly reels in the main pot, tripling his chip count. The entire room of gamblers watched the hand unfold and comment on the kid who was rivered by Johnny Chan.
I stand on rubber knees and look around. People are already beginning to forget and move back to the fresh hands being dealt. The cameras are moving away. I shake hands with the guy in the hoodie and congratulate him.
I walk over to Johnny Chan, sitting there stacking my chips at the other end of the table and stick out a hand. "Congratulations Mr. Chan. Good luck."
He looks up from his stack and gives me his outstretched hand. "Call me Johnny. Mr. Chan is my father. And thank you. See you next year."
I'm about to say not likely, when I look in the direction Johnny motions. The digital score clock has me placed at 560th. Right on the bubble. I placed in the money, well even money, in the World Series of Poker. I win an automatic bid into next years main event.
I'll be pumping gas or driving a truck until this time next year, to start paying off that student loan. But at least my ticket is stamped for another kick at the can. Stamped and paid in full.
See you in 06.
User Reviews
Submitted by slapsticky (user info) at 2006-09-07 15:32:28 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
No Comment
Submitted by Bundaberg (user info) at 2006-05-28 09:17:37 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by FunnyAsCancer (user info) at 2005-10-30 05:38:29 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment