Player's Stories

My first WSOP experience
By Tom Dykema

My friend Jeff and I got cheap flights, a car rental and reasonable rates for the Golden Nugget as we planned on playing the 2006 22nd event - the 2,000 No-limit at the Rio.

We arrived the day before the event but ran circles around the back of the RIO looking for the Poker Players parking lot. When we finally arrived the very first person I seen coming out the back door was Jennifer Tilly! (my favorite female poker player) with Phil Laak walking out to the parking lot. I immediately turned to Jeff and said, "This is a sign, and I'm going to make it into the money!"

The poker room was amazing with all the bright lights, the hundreds of tables, the filming area, the lines to the cages, the roped lines to the satellites, the cash games, the tournaments still going on from the previous day. I was star struck as saw many of the top poker players playing or walking around.

The next day was a thrill! We had 1579 players and I was on one side of the room and Jeff was on the other. The tournament was roped off to keep the railbirds out of the action but they let us in early enough to roam around the tables. John Juanda on the table next to me and Danny Negreanu 6 tables over towards Jeff and 15 or more well known pros in the midst. I was hoping to sit with one during the tournament. I wished Jeff good luck as my heart started beating faster and faster with excitement.

After the announcement of "Shuffle Up and Deal" I had a simple goal: Don't be the first one out. I did not want to confront anyone yet. I had talked on the plane with Jeff and said it would really suck to go all in on the first hand with AA and have someone with KK or QQ call and suck out. I can't remember the first hand but the second hand I folded AQ from early position.

After I realized that this was a fairly tight table I settled down and started playing my Dan Harrington version of poker. I started stealing blinds, winning some nice size pots and catching some good cards. By the end of the first hour I was up over 5,000 in chips and was leading my table. Jeff got knocked out by the fourth hour making it half way through the field.

After two more breaks I got as high around 10,000 when the cards started to go bad. My chip count was going down as I was getting close to the money. When it came down to around 175 players they started to play hand for hand. I was down to about 3000 in chips when I doubled up after hitting the nuts flush on the turn. After that hand, the seasoned player to my left told me that I could make it to the money by not playing any more hands through the next half hour. He was right! I through away QQ after the table leader made a bet large enough to put me all in before the flop. I had made it to the money! Jeff gave me thumbs up from the rail. I was guaranteed $2874!

Play went wild after that. In the next 20 minutes over 20 players went out. I got some good cards and my chip stack grew to 32,600 before the night ended. There were 101 players left and I was in 40th place. I was guaranteed $4311! We placed our chips in our personalized Ziploc plastic bags and went home at around 1 AM.

The next day started out with something I've never seen before! The player in seat 2 at my table was a little late. He missed about 4 hands and complained that he was not feeling good. Five minutes later he stood up and grabbed one of the empty chip storage plastic bags and walked away from the table apparently to throw up. The problem was that we were in a corner and he could not go anywhere. So he turned his back to us and threw up in the bag. A couple players at the table were really grossed out. It was sad. Play resumed. He felt better.

One hour into the second day and my chips were shrinking to about 23,000 when I went all in over a raise with KK. The throw up player was last to act and had a clock called on him after 6 minutes. He called with 1 second left with his AK. No ace showed up and I doubled up through him.

I was moved quite a few times and during this my stack went up and down between 35,000 and 70,000. Quite a few of us would glance at the monitors showing payoff and players remaining as our payoff amounts went up to $5748 and then $7184 and then $8621. It was very exciting!

I got moved between two feuding players when we got down to 45 players. To my right was Captain Tom Franklin and to my left was a unique player named Michael Odeh. Michael had a black leather hat and a wild look. More than once he stood up and yelled across the tables of the remaining players: "want to split?".

I had no idea who Captain Tom Franklin was. He played poorly while I was there. When Michael Odeh stood up and walked around Tom would tell me "that guy is a psycho! He has multiple personalities!" When Tom would walk away Michael would tell me that "Tom is an angry person, don't get on his bad side". They verbally attacked each other the whole time. They each complained to the floor person about each other. Oddly enough the floor person new them both very well and I think he wanted them both gone.

Then it happened. Someone went all in on the other side of the table and Michael was taking his time trying to figure out if he should call or not. Tom Franklin wanted him to make a quick decision. I personally wanted him to take as long he wanted because with 5 tables left maybe 2 or 3 players could be eliminated and increasing my/our payoff. Tom had enough. He called a clock on Michael Odeh. Michael and him went at it again. I thought there was going to be a fistfight. This time I was on Michael's side but I did not say anything. I think that this tilted Tom a little because a few hands later Captain Tom Franklin went all in on a weak hand and was eliminated.

You could definitely tell during the last few hours that the skill level of players had risen. Players also became very serious. Looking around the remaining 25 players I was definitely short stacked with only 65,000 in chips. The average chip stack was about $115,000. Somewhere between 70 and 25 players they had all tripled their stacks and I had not. I made a $20,000 raise with pocket 10's but two players went all in after me. I figured one player had a higher pair so I folded. They both had AK but since four spades came out I would have been eliminated if I had called. The next hand had one limper so I went all in with A8 of clubs hoping for a fold. He immediately called and turned over AK. The flop came A, 3,5 with one club. The turn came an 8 in which I yelled out "YES" but the river came a King in which I yelled out "NO". I finished in 25th place and received $17,243. Michael Odeh came up from another table and shook my hand and complimented me on my game.! This meant a great deal to me and I will not forget it.

I flew my girlfriend out and extended my vacation by 4 days and played in two $1000 tournaments at the Belagio. I only made it half way in each one. I paid Jeff our pre-tournament agreement of 10% and ended up around $10,000.

I have been to Vegas over 30 times in my life and this was my favorite trip ever! I cannot wait until next year!