Player's Stories

Bellagio casino's World Poker Tour Event - Part 2
By Daniel Rentzer

I was all-in on the first day and Marcel Luske had me beat. I tried to move in and bluff him out of the pot. He called right away and I was in very bad shape. I needed a seven for the gut-shot straight and I needed to catch it at the river. Low and behold the river came with my seven and I was still alive, Marcel seemed a bit upset as he stared at Negreanu and shook his head in disgust. It became apparent that Marcel had it out for me and was gunning for me throughout the rest of the tournament. We were coming close to the final hand of the first day and I looked down to see A-Q in the small. Marcel was on the button and made a raise that I thought was a blind steal attempt, especially since it was the last hand of the day. I called immediately and flopped a Queen with the ace kicker. A very strong hand in a heads up pot. Marcel bet the flop and I raised, he called and check raised me on the turn for a big amount. I called him on the turn and on the river, whereby I ended up losing about another 10,000 chips right before the end of the day due to the fact Marcel had pocket aces.

We ended the day and I found out I was in second to last place, right above Carlos Mortenson who also had a bad first day. To be honest I think I did not have a solid strategy put into place for the amount of chips we started with. Starting with ten thousand chips is one thing, but starting with 50,000 is a different story and changes the strategy of the game. From what I gathered most players did not even play any hands unless they held pocket aces or pocket kings, because they would still go into day 2 with tons of chips left.

I hung-out with my friend Scott for the remainder of the night talking about the hands that developed and trying to figure my strategy for day two. The bottom line we came to was that I needed to double up twice and do it fast.

We proceeded to play some slot machines and just relax in the casino because I did not want to leave the hotel. What happened next was quite interesting and pretty funny. It is totally unrelated to poker but needs to be told. I was sitting at a slot machine and noticed behind me a woman that looked drop dead gorgeous. I mean she was so beautiful that I kept looking at her in between spins on my slot machine. After looking at her for what must have been the thousandth time she started smiling at me and of course I smiled back. She came at sat next to me and asked how my luck was going. After talking to her about how my luck had been crappy and explaining to her that I was in town to play poker, I noticed that she smelled like roses and of course just happened to be wearing my x-girlfriends perfume that I loved. I told her I liked her perfume and that it was "Sunflowers" whereby she seemed impressed at my knowledge of perfume.

I thought I was working my magic and then realized that I was just being hustled after what she said next. She told me she was a masseuse and was their with her girlfriend that was upstairs giving a person a massage. She told me her name and explained how she was a UNLV college student that gave massages to pay for her school studies. Well that did not sound that bad and I actually could have used a massage especially since I was going to be continuing the WPT event in the morning. She kept talking to me and then said something very unexpected. I asked her how much the massage would be and she told me there was a catch. The catch was that she had to be naked when she gave me the massage.

Well I don't see how that could possibly be construed as a catch, coming form such a hot woman. But nonetheless I saw where this was going. She then told me that it would be a hundred dollars every fifteen minutes and that she could offer me other services as well as the massage. Well it turns out she was a hooker and after getting her number I did not call her back. I will admit that I was tempted to pay for her services but would never in my life pay for a hooker. Quite a few of my friends have been with hookers and after seeing the things that have happened to them as a result of being with these women I have learned to stay away. But it was the only time I had ever contemplated going through with it. I thought it may relax me and help me play better poker the following day, but still I avoided it. It was a real funny thing to have happen to me especially since I thought I was actually meeting someone that I could hang out with and get to know.

My friend Scott and I laughed it off because it is not the first time either of us had been approached by hookers in Las Vegas. One time we were in Vegas together and two hookers came up to us and asked if we wanted to hang-out, and then asked if we needed some company. Well we were real drunk and did not realize they were hookers until they told us how much their company would cost us. I made a big scene since I was drunk and yelled out loud so everyone in the casino and the people at the nearby crap table could here me speak. I said "800 dollars just for company, Jesus that's too expensive" I then looked over at the craps table and everyone started laughing because they knew that I had just been propositioned. It was one of the funniest things that has ever happened to me in Vegas.

The second day of the tournament came and I was pretty refreshed and ready to play. I looked over my table and noticed a few familiar faces. I saw Johnny Chan who I had previously played against in the WPT event at Commerce, Marcel Luske who I had battled against the previous day, and a player named Christer Johansson who won the world poker tour event at the aviation club in Paris. I did not have any worries about the tournament since I was short stacked and realized I just needed to double up, and I did just that. About an hour into the second day I picked up pocket nines and moved all-in. I was called in one spot by a player holding overcards and my hand held up. I had doubled up and was doing pretty good. I actually doubled up twice within the first few hours and managed to stay out of the way of some dangerous situations.

I was just being patient and waiting for a good situation to try and make a move when a confrontation broke out at the table. The hand was between Johnny Chan and Christer Johansson, it was like watching history before my eyes and I saw why Johnny Chan is such a good player. Johnny had pocket two's and limped in pre-flop against Christer who bet the flop from what I recall. I am not positive what the board was but Johnny had flopped a set of twos and trapped Christer into moving all-in. Johnny slow-played the hand and ended up knocking out Christer while accumulating some more chips to add to his stack. It reminded me of a hand that Johnny had played against Erik Seidel during the world series of poker, the hand that was shown in the movie "Rounders". I felt privileged to see this hand take place and I am sure not many people have ever heard of this hand, but I witnessed it with my own eyes.

It was clear that Marcel Luske was after me due to the fact I was still treading water on the second day and he wanted me gone. I had beaten him on quite a few hands the previous day and I tried to make a move on him that did not work. I wad dealt A-J on the button and everyone folded to me, whereby I raised a medium amount pre-flop. Raising a medium amount against Marcel who was in the big blind with a decent amount of chips was my first mistake, I should have just moved all-in pre-flop but he may still have called. He called me with 6-3 off-suit and flopped a 3 for a pair of threes. There were ragged cards on the flop that I did not think helped out Marcel, but I was obviously mistaken. I checked on the flop and Marcel bet a small amount whereby I moved all-in. I was under the impression that my ace high was probably the best hand and check-raising him all-in would scare him off the hand if he also had big cards.

Well, this story has a sad ending because he called my all-in and showed me his ugly 6-3 off-suit and I got no help on the turn or river. I was done, knocked out by a 6-3 off-suit against my A-J. It was a horrible way to get knocked out and I still can't believe he called my pre-flop raise with 6-3, but I figure he just wanted to get me for the previous events that took place during the tournament. I walked away extremely upset and eventually went back to the table to shake his hand and wish him luck in the rest of the tournament. I wandered the casino floor in shock that I had been eliminated, it did not seem like I was suppose to be out of the tournament, at least not yet.

Playing in this event was very fun and definitely a rewarding experience. I got to play against the best players in the entire world of poker, and actually got the chance to try and outplay some of the best. Although I did not last past the second day of the tournament I definitely felt like I belonged at the table with all the professional players from all over the world. I held my own and played a strong game of poker until I finally got knocked out of the tournament. The final results from this event are listed below.

 

1	Alan Goehring (Henderson, NV)	$1,011,886 and Entry into $25,000 Buy-in World Poker Tour Championship event 2004
2	Kirill Gerasimov (Moscow, Russia)	$506,625
3	Phil Ivey (Atlantic City, NJ)	$253,313
4	Doyle Brunson (Las Vegas, NV)	$159,987
5	Ted Forrest (Las Vegas, NV)	$119,990
6	James Hoeppner (Las Vegas, NV)	$93,326