[This continues my story, based on the notes I was taking at the table, during the $1500 Mixed Hold'Em event. #183 and #184 contain my notes from Day 1/5 PM through 11 PM. We continued to play until 3 AM, plus I have notes from Day 2. As it gets later in the tournament, the notes get more boring. I'm observing more as a player than as a writer. People at the table are always asking me about what I'm writing but end up disappointed by what I show them or read them. As I mentioned in #184, I got moved to Randy Jensen's table, where I immediately got lucky and won a big pot from him.]
11:06 PM - Randy Jensen is a very nice guy. He's apparently read a lot of what I've written. He told me that he likes my writing, but takes exception with what I once wrote about him. I think it was in SUICIDE KING but it could have been in my last blog, but I suggested that his nickname sounded made-up.
11:06 PM - Randy Jensen is a very nice guy. He's apparently read a lot of what I've written. He told me that he likes my writing, but takes exception with what I once wrote about him. I think it was in SUICIDE KING but it could have been in my last blog, but I suggested that his nickname sounded made-up.
I don't remember if I said it was made up or SOUNDED made-up but it truly sounds like something the WPT just febricated to give him an "image" for his final table appearance v. Barry Greenstein. Like something from the WWF.
He told me that the nickname wasn't made up. I hereby apologize to Randy, though I have to admit that it's not much of an apology. Here's what he told me about the nickname: "I got in in Tunica one year, where I made like 4 or 5 final tables. One of the dealers said, 'you're crushin' 'em' and so someone called me 'dreamcrusher.'"
I don't know, Randy. I 100% believe that's what happened, but that's not much different than saying "It sounds made-up." Is it a true nickname in a sense that people actually call him that? It's one letter longer than his first and last name combined. I know Phil Ivey used to be referred to as "the Tiger Woods of poker" but that was never his nickname. No one called him that. Nor, I'm sure, was he ever called "Tiger" or "T.W." Likewise, I'd be surprised if Randy's friends call him "D.C." or "Dreamcrusher."
I was speculating when I wrote whatever I first wrote. But I thought the WPT seized "Dreamcrusher" to create a persona because Randy wasn't super-well-known outside of poker. That still sounds like the case, especially because Randy Jensen, no matter how good a poker player he can be, is too nice a guy for that nickname. It's just not him.
There are a lot of cooler nicknames I could actually give him, that people might actually use.
11:15 PM - 25,300. Starting 150-300 blinds LHE, bets of 300-600. Sabyl Cohen is in Seat 1. I gave her and Randy copies of the book. Randy is reading his at the table. The HORSE had 148 entries, 5 more than last year. Randy Jensen told me he took a year off poker to spend time at home with his kids. They're 8 and 4 now and he used to take them with him when he traveled, even showing them parts of the world they were learning about in school. But they were missing a lot of school and it became a problem. He said my blog was one of the things he read to keep up what what was going on with people in poker.
11:45 PM - 28,000. There are 240 players left, with a chip average of about 7,800.
12:10 AM - There's definitely a feeling that the HORSE is the major leagues and we're the triple-A club one town over. They have extra ropes and security and floor people. Even at midnight, the crowd is 2-3 deep around the rail. Here? I think I've been the chipleader most of the night and I don't think anyone has noticed.
12:20 AM - 25,000. HORSE is done for the night. 130 left, average is 113,000. It's going to be like a ghost town in here. I'm glad I'm playing instead of watching. I feel like some of the best stuff I ever wrote was about the HORSE last year for my prior blog on Pokerworks.com. (E-mail me at suicideking@fulltiltpoker.com if you want the links, or just look at the site at my old entries from the dates of last year's HORSE.) What was great about the tournament last year was the fact that they were in completed uncharted territory. They had no idea how to set up the structure, or what a cool field they had. So they went very late the first night, and didn't finish the second "night" until 10:30 AM the next day. The final table started at 8 PM and the heads-up between Bloch and Reese went from midnight until 9 AM. It was about old pros, playing for days on end. The atmosphere was incredible.
None of that this year. It's scheduled for 5 days with heavy TV coverage.
I see Oklahoma Johnny Hale walking around inside the ropes. Doing what?
1:10 AM - 27,700. Back from break. 200-300 blind NLHE. 619 started, 186 left.
1:30 AM - A woman who looks like Paris Hilton walks by, dressed like you'd expect to see Paris Hilton dressed to walk through a casino. The look just shocks me because it's so dead and empty in here. Just as I'm thinking this, Randy mutters, "Did Paris just get out of jail?"
Sabyl Cohen has busted out and Paul Darden takes her seat.
From earlier, I talked with Randy Jensen about a story I wrote about him and Ted Forrest and the PPT event they played where they finished 1st (Ted) and 2nd (Randy). I wrote about the final table from Ted's perspective for a CARD PLAYER feature. An interesting story out of that table is that Randy started the day on the shortest stack. He signed the PPT application declaring his professional affiliation with Full Tilt but never got a shirt with a logo on it. (Obviously, this is before they had patches or people who were present with the clothing - that's how I've gotten most of my wardrobe.) Ted Forrest had the opposite problem: he was wearing a Full Tilt dress shirt and was ready to endorse the site but he wasn't allowed to, because he didn't declare on the application before the tourney.
Ted gave Randy his shirt, then watched as Jensen went on a tear, chipping up and putting himself in contention. When they started heads-up, Ted's main thought was, I can't believe I had the lucky shirt and I let Randy Jensen have it.
We laughed about the story and Randy said, "That was very nice of Ted. I made fifteen or twenty thousand because of that." I asked him if he ever gave the shirt back. "Right there in the Mirage. Everyone was treated to a view of 'the bod.'"
1:41 AM - Chip counter came by. "I feel like I should recognize you from somewhere."
Randy says to him, "Do you watch porn?"
I introduced myself and asked him what he estimated for my stack. "About 34."
I said, "It's actually about 31,000 but like in my porn days, we tend to exaggerate by a little."
1:58 AM - 22,400. That chip counter was the kiss of death. Now that I'm on the leaderboard, I'm plummeting off it. I lost a big hunk to Paul Darden, who raised in limit with ace-rag on my big blind, then called my check-raise and bet on the turn, only to hit a gut-shot on the river. Three hands later, Darden did exactly the same thing to Randy Jensen. After that, I lost another hand in limit hold 'em where I raised and kept betting top pair, but was outkicked.
2:14 AM - 200-400 blind NLHE. Moved to a new table. Paul Darden is sitting across from me. Two different people compliment him on having lost weight, which makes him say, "Gee, did it seem like I was that big before?" Hopefully I can get back some of my chips from him, unless he makes some more straights.
2:35 AM - 20,300. 125 players left. The average is 14,500.
2:40 AM - I pull off a bluff so obvious to Paul Darden that he winks at me and I can't help but smile. That takes me up to about 23,000. I'm mostly staying out of it. The level is 200-400 and Paul made a raise to 1,400, and now everyone at the table is raising to 1,400. That's a HUGE raise when there are no antes.
3:00 AM - 22,700. End of the night. Restart at 3 PM tomorrow. I think we have about 115 left.
