Player's Stories

The Education of a Poker Player: Part IV
Tales from Tunica -- The World Poker Open

By Randy Glover

Satellites

I ponder my next two days. After blowing $100 shooting craps with my brother the previous morning, I have $400 in bankroll left. I want to play some satellites, but the only one going at 10:00 a.m. is a $220 buy in to the $2,000 NLHE tournament that starts the next day. That would be pretty poor bankroll management. There is also a $220 super satellite that night for the $10,000 buy-in NLHE tournament starting on Wednesday. But the super satellites are rebuy tournaments and I don't have enough cash for even one rebuy. I again regret taking $2,000 from my poker bankroll to put into the stock market.

I watch the $220 satellite for a while, then find out that afternoon they will begin $45 satellites for the $300 buy-in limit hold em tournament. I have found a satellite that fits my bankroll. Forty-five dollars gets you a seat at a ten-person table, winner take all. The rake is huge as the last one left gets one $300 tournament chip plus $50 cash. Each player starts with $200 in tournament chips.

I win my first hand of my first satellite at the WPO. I find K,10os in the BB. It is checked around to me. A King comes on the flop, I bet it and am called. The turn brings a ten. I bet and all fold. I am up maybe $80.

Here is what I have determined from playing satellites online at PokerSchool: Sit back at the beginning of the tournament (unless you have a premium hand) until 3 or 4 players are eliminated. At the beginning of a limit tournament the blinds are not that high and even if you wait a half hour without playing you only see your chips go down by a small amount. In this satellite, ideally you want to catch a hand just when the betting limits get to $50/$100 and then you can rake in a big pot. If you don't, you have at least lasted long enough to give yourself a chance to win. Many players follow the opposite strategy and play fast and loose. But when the betting limits are low you can build your stack up to only $400 or $500, while if you miss you are on the rail early.

The tight satellite strategy seems to me the long-term winning one.

I catch AKos when there are six players left. I have $175 in chips. I get it all in pre-flop, only to lose to a pocket pair. Proving once again that AK is the make or break tournament hand.

I head over to the food area and grab a Homer Simpson-sized donut. The hospitality at the WPO cannot be overstated. Every morning and afternoon they comp all participants a meal which is served next door to the tournament area. If you get tired of the food there, your comp gets you $10 at the buffet or any restaurant downstairs. The same policy applies to the poker rooms. A comp (even for a $19.95 full buffet) is given for only a couple of hours of play. In Las Vegas you have to put in 4 hours of play and then you only get $6 off a meal.

I watch the final table of the $1,000 buy-in NLHE tournament. Phil Hellmuth starts in the number two seat in third chip position. But the player I watch is David Roepke in seat number six. I had noticed him earlier playing Pot-Limit Omaha and he just looked like a winner. Coincidentally, I sit next to his friend of twenty-five years, Denver, and find out that in 1997 David had finished eighth in the Big One at the WSOP. I have someone to root for. (Please see related player profile on David Roepke on PokerPages.com.)

After the final table breaks up (David Roepke wins it), I watch the only $45 satellite going. There is a good deal of dead money in these small buy-in events. As I walk up nine players are grumbling about the play of the chip leader. I soon see why. She rakes in a monster pot with a board of 2,4,6,x,x. She proudly flips over 3,5 of clubs and says, "What's wrong with 3,5? It was suited."

The floor man in charge of starting new satellites tells me that since he just got the last super satellite of the tournament going, it will be at least two hours before he anticipates another $45 satellite starting. I get enough players on my own. As the 3,5 lady keeps knocking people out, I lead them over to the next satellite table. Before long I have 6 players and soon we have a game.

A Chip and a Chair

This is a satellite I will never forget. First, a very fast player makes a Royal Flush early and knocks out two players on the hand. I play my tight strategy and literally don't play a hand the first half hour. The fast player throws away his mountain of chips and is knocked out 6th. It is at this point that I start catching. I get AK and a flop of K,10,x. I raise. It is me and a longhaired guy with a beard left in the hand. He has played very few hands, but I know I have the lead and that he is probably on a draw. I catch an Ace. Was he playing QJ? I look at his remaining chips -- $55 left. I bet the limit of $50. He calls, leaving himself one five-dollar chip. The river is a blank and I try to get his last five-dollar chip in. He hangs onto it like it is a family heirloom.

I am chip leader at this point. I tell myself to stay out of the fray with less than premium hands. The guy with the beard turns his $5 chip into $20 as he wins the main pot with A8s. The other two players remaining and I get him all in three consecutive hands. We check the dry pot every time. Every time he wins it with Ax and an Ace on board. He now has over $300.

I slow down again and he eliminates the other two players and is chip leader by a scant $200. He is fearless now. He waves off my offer of a chop as if I were a buzzing gnat. "I'm going to win this," he says.

I gear up for a long battle. I tell myself to be relentlessly aggressive. I catch K6s. Not any kind of a hand at a full table, but playable one-on-one. I raise it from the Small Blind. He calls. The board is 3,4,6. Scary if he were limping, but he called my raise. I bet: it is a dismal top pair, but it is top pair. He calls. Turn is a blank, as is the river. I'm doing the betting, I'm taking control of this table. I flip over my K6. He flips over 5,2os. Half my stack is gone.

My next hand is A7. He raises, I call. Flop is Q,x,x. I check. He bets. I pause. Does he have a Q? Possibly. I have $350 left.

Hmm...I think he is just trying to bluff me out of this one. With the limits at $50/100, I have some time if I decide to fold. Solid strategy tells me to get out. Blind optimism throws out another $50. I pray for an Ace on the turn. I don't get it. He bets. Warning bells sound: FOLD, FOLD, FOLD. But I am still thinking that he is trying to blow through me and an Ace-high hand will be good. I tell myself I will fold if the river is a blank and he bets.

The river is my redemption: A gorgeous black Ace. He bets, and I raise my last $100 chip. I have a big mouth and I manage to get my entire foot into it at the worst times. I say, "I bet you didn't want to see that Ace." He grins, showing me a mouth missing a few teeth.

Uh, oh. I turn my cards over. So does he. AQ. The long battle I had anticipated lasts exactly two hands.

Most of the other players at our table have stayed to watch. They tell me it was destiny. I'm not so sure; maybe I should have played more conservatively. I do tell them that I will write this up for PokerPages.com. At least I will get a story out of it.

I should go to bed, but I play another $45 satellite. I play a patient strategy and I last until number five when AJ does me in. I actually could have saved my last $50 with a board of x,x,K,x. But I call with my last two green chips. I have the bettor pegged for a pocket pair, and am correct: 66. The river does not bring an A or J. I was correct; I should have gone to bed.

In this satellite I also see the down side of poker (and gambling in general). One of the final two players left (Chuck) proposes a chop, but the other player, who looks like he may have slept in his clothes, has to find his backer to ask about the chop and whether he may leave a $10 tip. What is going on - this is a $45 satellite? When he returns to collect his winnings, he says "I get to sleep in a real bed tonight." I think he is kidding, but another player tells me he was a former corporate jet pilot who has let gambling consume his life. The former jet pilot has been sleeping in his car because he has gambled away everything he had.

Me and Phil

Between Queenie and Aretha talking and laughing outside my hotel room door, and my wife calling again, I get to see another Mississippi Delta sunrise. My room has a view of the Mississippi River and there is almost constant barge traffic. Some of these barges are so long that I thought a string of barges was an island one morning.

One interesting thing about gambling in Mississippi is that all the casinos (not the hotels) have to be on the water. This is a sham. They dredge a canal just wide enough for the river water to seep in and form a small lagoon. They then plop a full-sized casino on top of the water - technically a barge. The original intent was for the casinos to all be river boats, but we are an ingenious species.

I eat brunch with Phil Hellmuth. He is in the $2,000 NLHE tournament and he leaves his chair and chips to eat, and is in the omelet line ordering when I arrive for a second brunch (for the curious reader: Phil had eggs beaters with a little cheese). We do not talk poker strategy, but do talk about how you have to drive to Memphis to get sushi. He gives a polite wave when he heads back to the tournament. I wish him luck.

I have been star struck most of my visit. I ride the elevator with Huck Seed and Doyle Brunson. T.J. Cloutier asks me and Bbrown09 a question about a hand in play at a final table. A table at the start of the $2,000 NLHE tournament has Huck Seed in seat #8, Daniel Negreanu in #9, Scotty Nguyen in #10, Jimmy Chan in #1, and David "Devilfish" Ulliot in seat #6. There are four other recognizable players at that table, but I don't write down their names and forget who they were. Only one player at the table is not a professional. I would give anything to be that unknown player against the greats of the world. Wow.

My last satellite doesn't start until an hour before my van leaves for the airport (thank you Teresa and the Horseshoe for arranging the ride). I do well and find myself in a virtual two-way tie for first with just three players left. I also find myself ten minutes late meeting my van. I propose a chop. But there is a problem: one very short stack. The short stack demands $75. I think he should be happy to get his buy-in back. The other big stack is very gracious. Thanks Chuck, you are a gentleman as well as a fine hold em player.

I ride back to the airport with a very nice guy (an Omaha/eight player) who travels with his own microwave. I assume he is on a special diet, but I would not want to get that thing through airport security these days.

Lessons learned:

• I am happy with my play. I am patient and make few mistakes that I am aware of.

• I learn more about satellite play. I feel like I can compete in satellites (at least at the $45 buy in level).

• Tunica is a poker player's paradise. Generous comps, cheap rooms (Often it is $25/night midweek, and $35 on the weekends).

The $350 Delta travel voucher quickly burned a hole in my pocket and I have already booked my next trip to Las Vegas. Another report is planned for April covering six days of tournaments in late March.

May we meet at a final table soon.

Part III | Part V

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