It was to be expected. Attracting amateurs from far and wide, the smaller buy-in no-limit hold’em tournaments at the World Series have turned into complete freakshows this year. The $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em event that started on June 2 attracted 2,998 players and elicited frustration from everyone involved. The lines to register were way too long and those bumped into the tent out back were slowly roasted in the oven-like conditions. So does it come as a surprise that today’s event, another $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em tournament, has sparked the same insanity?

I had planned on entering this event, but the poker gods argued against it. I went to register last night at 11:00 p.m. and discovered a line that snaked its way out of the Amazon Room and into the center of the intersection where the two major hallways meet. The estimate at that time was that it would take two hours for those at the back of the line to reach the cashier’s cage. I chose to sit in a cash game and check back later.

I feel like I have finally shaken off all the rust that I accumulated after six months away from the game. I now know exactly where I’m at in most of the hands I get involved in. Now if the cards would only help me out a little. For my first six hours of cash-game play this trip, I didn’t get dealt a pocket pair higher than 10s. When I finally got a pair of queens two nights ago, the betting at my table went like this. The player under the gun opened for a highly suspicious min raise to $10. The next player popped it to $30. I flat-called from the small blind. The player under the gun made it $100 more, a betting pattern that screamed aces or kings. It was an easy fold for me. Sure enough, he had aces. The problem was that his opponent called (stupidly) with jacks and was rewarded for his stupidity by catching a jack on the flop. When a queen fell on the turn, I wanted to puke, but I had made the right play so I should have been happy (although I wasn’t). Later in the night I got kings in the small blind and reraised a raiser and a caller. The big blind moved all in, a move that screamed aces. But then I (over)thought the play and decided that, because of my aggressive play the last several rounds, the big blind could possibly have thought I was making a squeeze play with weak cards. The possibility that he might have been as weak as A-K or queens or even jacks convinced me to call, and, hell, I had kings. He of course showed me aces.

With Sam Farha’s encouraging words in my ear I sat down at a pot-limit Omaha table last night having never played the game live before. Having written a book with Sam on Omaha strategy, I felt well prepared and I actually played really well. I played only good starting cards and won the pots I showed an interest in. Then came the big hand of the night. I limped from early position with JcJsAh6h and called when a player in late position raised. The flop pretty much nailed me on the head: QhJd2h. I had flopped middle set and the nut flush draw. Even if he had a hand as strong as top pair and a wrap, something like Qd10d9c8s, I was still a 73%-23% favorite. Do I even need to say that I didn’t fill up or make my flush and my opponent won with a straight.

 

When I got up from the table at 2 a.m., I checked the line to register for today’s $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em event… and it was exactly as long as it was before. I took that (along with my run of cold cards) as a sign that I wasn’t meant to play today. The last I saw 2,617 players had entered with a long line of alternates still waiting to get in. Madness.