Player's Stories

Bellagio casino's World Poker Tour Event - Part 1
By Daniel Rentzer

After finishing in second place at the Commerce Casino's World Poker Tour event I won something I did not even know about until Gus Hansen informed me about it. I won an entry into the World Poker Tour championship event at Bellagio, a seat that could be worth millions of dollars and had a value of 25,000 dollars attached to it. After the Commerce tournament I was so tired I did not even realize how lucky I was to have an entry in this prestigious event. I was part of history now that I had an entry into this event because it was the most expensive buy-in poker tournament that had ever been held, and up to the time of this writing it still is. The second World Poker Tour championship event is just weeks away and I wish I could play in it but I don't have 25,000 dollars to invest in a poker tournament.

All the players that played in this event are by far the best poker players in the entire world. It was a very tough event and since we started with thousands of chips it was going to be a game of skill and not much luck. I actually wanted to sell or transfer the seat but was told by Steve Lipscomb the "brainchild" of the World Poker Tour, that I had to play no matter what. He informed me how much prestige the event had and made me realize that it was going to make history. I knew after talking to Steve what he meant and realized that I wanted to play to be part of this spectacle. As it turns out it is probably a once in a life-time event for most poker players, and I know in the future this event will make history. I think this tournament will eventually beat the World Series main event at the most important poker tournament in the world. If it ever grows in proportion to the World Series of Poker the prize pools will be the size of the California Lottery.

I arrived in Vegas the night before the tournament and relaxed in my room trying to think things through regarding this tournament. I tried to come up with some kind of strategy but it was not easy to do. I went down to the poker room to see who would be at my table the first day but the seats had not yet been drawn. I was hoping to find out who I was going to be up against in the morning, so I could plan out some type of battle plan. I ate a light dinner and played some No-Limit Hold'em with my friend Scott who came to the Bellagio with me to keep me company and help keep me in line. I thought it was important to have a good friend at the casino with me talk about strategy among other things. If you want to see a picture of my friend Scott, he was the big guy on T.V. rooting me on when I knocked out Carlos Mortenson in the Commerce WPT. I tried to get to bed early but there was no way I was going to fall asleep when I was about to play in the World Poker Tour championship in a matter of hours.

The tournament started right around 12:00PM and I woke up after having about two hours of sleep. I did my usual big buy-in tournament routine which consisted of getting a bottle of water and a power bar for breakfast; maybe I would add a glass of milk or orange juice. My stomach does not do well when I am nervous and I was terrified about this whole ordeal. I got to the tournament room which was an area that previously contained slot machines, the machines were gone and the World Poker Tour crew was doing its magic.

Everywhere I looked, all I saw were famous poker players getting interviews and talking to one another. I saw some commotion going on in the tournament room and decided I would go see what was going on. The name drawing for player's seats had just concluded and the 106 players that were playing in this event were all gathered around trying to get a glimpse of who they would be facing off with throughout the day. I looked over my table and saw three recognizable names. The first name that popped into my head was Daniel Negreanu, one of the most deadly young players in the world of poker and someone who had helped me get to where I am today.

The next name that came up was James McManus, a player who has been to the final table of the World Series of Poker main event and a big student of the game from what I had recalled in the World Series of Poker video he was in. The third player's name that rang a bell in my head was none other than Ron Rose. An extremely dangerous player coming off a World Poker Tour Win and a second final table finish on the World Poker Tour in this inaugural season. After looking over the board I used the restroom and hit my table anxiously awaiting the start and of course, hopefully the end of day one.

When I got to my table I was seated in middle position with Negreanu in seat one, Ron Rose to my left in seat seven from what I remember, and McManus sitting in seat ten. I was waiting for the tournament to start and all of the sudden I saw Doyle Brunson approaching our table and getting ready to sit down. When the sweat disappeared from my forehead and I was able to see straight again I realized he was at the wrong table and was actually one table over.

"Wow," I told the table, "We just dodged a bullet there". I thought it was funny but everyone else seemed to ignore me because we had a big tournament about to begin. The tournament was minutes from beginning and than I recognized another player at my table, sitting next to Daniel Negreanu. His name is David Chiu and he's a big time and big high limit player. Well, I guessed it was time to suck it up and give it my best shot. It wasn't like I could get an easy table draw in this event anyways.

I knew since I was starting out with 50,000 chips, I would have tons of time to wait and pick my spots instead of gambling on mediocre hands. I got in a confrontation with Daniel Negreanu on the very first hand of the tournament when I was dealt K-Q in early position. I raised a very small amount and enabled Daniel to call from the big blind for too cheap of an amount. I should have known that he would call with almost any hand in the big blind faced with such a small raise; however it was the first time I had played against him in a brick and mortar card room and did not know his style yet.

The flop came 2-2-Q from what I remember, and Daniel check raised me whereby I called. Of course he held a 2 in his hand and ended up winning a decent sized pot right off the bat. My stack had dropped down from 50,000 to about 47,000 on the very first hand. This was a preface to what would happen to me the rest of the day.

A few hours went by and I could not hit anything I played, luckily I won some small pots here and there. I finally picked up A-A (pocket aces) and was in middle position. A player at the table whose name I don't know but I think he is related to Humberto Brenes raised in early position, and after looking down to my pocket rockets I re-raised him a pretty strong amount whereby he called. I put him on a big pocket pair and knew I obviously had him beat; it was just a question of what came on the flop. I was now getting pretty low on chips when the flop came with a K-J-4, I am not one hundred percent positive if this was the exact flop but I do remember he came out firing on the flop for a large amount and I called.

At this point he had flopped a set of jacks with his pocket jacks. I was beat bad and had roughly two outs. I actually really thought he may have flopped a set of kings or something like that, but called to see the turn. The turn brought a medium small card like a three and the board was still looking scary to me. He checked the turn and I bet a very large amount and once he called my bet I knew I was in trouble. The river brought a queen and now the board looked something like this K-J-4-3-Q and he bet a medium amount.

I called to see his set and then mucked my hand, realizing I was lucky I did not go broke on it. I looked up to see Jennifer Harman standing at the table staring in amazement at my misfortune and heard Daniel Negreanu ask me how I avoided going broke on this hand, I felt relieved knowing that I did not get knocked out when I should have been gone. I lost about 15,000-20,000 chips on this hand and now had about 10,000 left, due to the fact I had already lost with pocket aces once earlier.

Prior to this hand I lost roughly 25,000 chips which was about half my stack, to the well respected author of "positively fifth street" James McManus. The confrontation we got in was really strange and made me very angry to say the least. If I recall correctly I was dealt K-Q and brought it in for a raise from middle position. Jim took his time and called the raise. The flop came with three spades and a Queen, giving me a pair of queens with a strong kicker.

I bet again and Jim took his cards and pushed them towards the dealer and it looked to me like he was folding. Jim never called for time and never protected his hand. The dealer also thought he was folding and took his cards and put them in the muck. Right when I was about to throw my cards away Jim started yelling at the dealer and claimed he never meant to fold his hand. He had flopped the nut flush and was apparently trying to determine how much he was going to raise me. But the entire situation confused the hell out of me and I did not understand if he was serious at first, because he had actually pushed his cards towards the dealer.

Anyways, the floor man came over and took Jim away from the table to ask him what he had thrown away. The floor man then checked the muck where his cards had been thrown away and gave him his hand back after confirming that the cards were his. It was clear which two cards were his because they were only about half way into the muck. Most casinos would never even have considered giving him his hand back, but the rules differ from casino to casino. He finally got his cards back and raised me whereby I called.

I also called his bets on the turn and the river when the river card came with a king. I now had top two pair and liked my hand enough to call his all-in bet on the river. He showed the nut-flush and I lost about 25,000 chips on this hand. I probably would have folded my hand if I could have got a read on him during the flop betting, but after all the commotion I was confused and made a bad call. I still don't think it was correct to give a player his cards back after they hit the muck, especially if the player had pushed his cards towards the dealer. This hand hurt big time and most likely was the main reason I did not have a chance to win this event.

The only thing that made me calm down was hearing the loud commotion coming from another table near by. Mike Matusow came over to our table and was telling everyone "Phil Ivey had done it again", apparently Phil had tripled up on a humongous hand and from what I remember knocked out two players in a single hand. Phil's stack looked like the empire state building and he was by far chip leader. The other chip leader was at my table and it was Daniel Negreanu, he was running the table into the ground making everyone look stupid. I wish I could see how he ran over McManus over and over again. He was getting tremendous respect from the table and playing tons of hands whereby he was getting free cards from the timid players and hitting every hand he played. He was fun to watch and I came to realize why he is such a good player.

Check back tomorrow for Part 2 of Daniel Rentzer's Bellagio casino's World Poker Tour Event.