Jun
21
by Chad Holloway
On Friday, June 10, 2011, I played in my first-ever World Series of Poker tournament, an event at least 15 years in the making. I’ve always wanted to play in a WSOP event, and regretted not doing so in my previous visits. I decided this was the year and decided Event #17: $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. would be it. I’d have gone with a no-limit event, but I figured the limit format of the H.O.R.S.E. would ensure I’d get my money’s worth.
I wasn’t thrilled that the tournament started at Noon, considering I had worked until 3:30 AM that morning, but I was at the Rio and ready to go at the start of the tournament. Interestingly, I was in my seat (Table 53 Seat 5) in the Pavilion waiting for things to start, I got a phone call from the producer of the History Channel’s Pawn Stars TV show. I had submitted some old WSOP photos for consideration and they called me to schedule a time to film. Needless to say, I was super excited and it put me in a great mood for the tournament.
*I’ll be sure to write more on the Pawn Stars experience in a future post.
Now I’ve been working the WSOP for three years, having covered dozens of tournaments, but this was the first time I’d actually paid to be there. Instead of hovering around the tournament floor, bouncing from table to table, I paid $1,500 in cold hard cash. I was no longer a vulture scavenging for the remnants of action; I was a hawk eagerly looking for easy prey.
Things got off to a fast start. During the first round, which was hold’em, I picked up pocket queens and bet every step of the way as the board ran out 2-Q-6-2-7, giving me a full house. Surprisingly, I got paid off by two players. Not bad for the first hand I ever won at the WSOP. A few minutes later, Matt Savage took his seat to my immediate right. I’d never met Savage before, but I knew him as the Tournament Director for the World Poker Tour. Not long after, former WPT champ Tuan Le was moved two to my left. Needless to say, the table was getting tougher.
I managed to chip up to 5,600, from a starting stack of 4,500, by the end of Level 2.Come Level 5, I was sitting with 6,150, which right around the time 1998 WSOP Main Event Champion Scotty Nguyen sat down at my table in Seat 8. I love me some Scotty, baby, and I knew it was going to be a fun day. Win or lose, at least I’d get to play with a World Champion.
Two things happened right before the dinner break. First, Savage was busted by Le. Second, I took a shot at busting Nguyen in a hand of Omaha Hi/Low. Unfortunately for me, the distinction of the man who knocked Nguyen out of the $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. eluded me as he survived to triple up. Had I knocked him out, I had a nickname all picked out. I was going to insist people call me the “H.O.R.S.E. Whisperer,” at least for awhile.
After dinner, I returned to a stack of 9,800, which was above the average of 7,200. Nguyen busted a short time later, which was followed by our table being broke. I was moved to Table 41 where I encountered the second most-famous Chad at the table, Norman Chad. I was looking forward to some good conversation with ESPN’s color commentator, but he was unusually quiet. I chipped up a little at Table 41 before breaking again and being moved to Table 2. Obviously this table wasn’t going to break at all on Day 1, so I was happy to see the most notable players at the table were 2008 Main Event fourth-place finisher Ylon Schwartz and 2008 Ladies Event Champ Svetlana Gromenkova.
Around this time I did an interview for PokerNews which was really cool. Being a part of the PokerNews team is great because everyone is in you corner and pulling for you. Unfortunately, with only two levels to go in the night, the cards went cold. The big blinds and antes began eating away at my stack and before too long I was well below the chip average. With only 6,500 remaining, I made a stand in the Stud Hi/Lo round after making a 6-5-3-2-A low on sixth street. Schwartz bet the entire time and I had a bad feeling he had made a better low; however, with just 1,600 back, I called off on the river. Sure enough, Schwartz rolled over a wheel to scoop the pot. Good game me.
While I didn’t cash, I was happy with my performance. I busted around 200th place (out of 963), meaning I cracked the top 20% of the field. I truly look forward to my next WSOP event, and hopefully my first cash. In my next post, I’ll bring you up to date on my various fantasy poker leagues, and also fill you in on some of the more interesting things that have happened in Las Vegas and at the WSOP. In the meantime, be sure to follow me on Twitter @ChadAHolloway.
*Picture courtesy of PokerNews
Jun
10
by Chad Holloway
It’s really nice to be back in Vegas for the summer and getting to see so many poker friends, both players and media members alike. This year PokerNews has been kind enough to put me up in a house along with four other media veterans in Eric Ramsey, Mickey Doft, Paul Oresteen, and Jon “Jon Bon” Boncek. I get along with them all, the house it sweet, and I can tell it is going to be a much more comfortable summer than the one I experienced last year (I spent seven weeks in the Hard Rock with no kitchen, washer/dryer, etc.).
The cash games here in Vegas have been tearing me up, but I’ve managed a couple of tournament scores that have evened me up. First, I played an $85 buy-in NLHE tournament at Caesar’s Palace and chopped that four ways for around $900 each. The second tournament was also at Caesar’s, but was a part of their Summer Mega-Stack Series 2011. The event was the $130 buy-in Limit Omaha 8 or Better tournament took place on June 2, 2011. Players started with 12K in chips and the event attracted 132 players. I made it all the way to the final table and we decided to chop seven-handed, which was a good idea considering the big stack only had around five big bets. We chopped based on chips, which looked as follows:
Seat 1: 230,000
Seat 2: 160,000
Myself: 265,000
Seat 5: 505,000
Seat 6: 100,000
Seat 7: 345,000
Seat 9: 290,000
As you can see, I was sitting fourth in chips which allowed me to lock up $1,367. I was happy with the chop considering the original payouts were: 1st- $2,946; 2nd- $2,049; 3rd- $1,536; 4th- $1,191; 5th- $858; 6th- $659; and 7th- $538. Like I said, the betting limits were so high (40,000-80,000) that it was a matter of luck at that point. Plus, I brought up the idea of a chop right before the blinds hit me, so I’m sure I got some extra value there.
Speaking of poker tournaments, I’m really excited to play my very first World Series of Poker bracelet event on Friday, June 10, 2011. I am already registered to play the $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. at noon that day, and I’ll finally be able to check “Play a WSOP Event” off my bucket list. That’ll just leave “Play the Main Event!” I’ll be sitting at Table 53/Seat 5 in the Pavilion White area. I sold some of my action in that event and am looking to make a lot of people, myself included, a great deal of money. It sure would be nice to finish in that top ten percent. I’ll obviously be posting about that experience in a future blog.
In other Vegas news, I went to see Daniel Tosh of Comedy Central’s Tosh.O do standup at Mandalay Bay last week. There were like 8,000 people there, but it was still a great show. I’m a huge Tosh fan, so it was great to get the chance to see him live. He’s also a Miami Dolphins fan, so that makes him alright in my book.
In fantasy poker news, I am not doing so hot. In the 2011 ESPN Fantasy Poker League I am in dead last with zero points after ten events. It didn’t help that I had Phil Ivey and he decided to skip the 2011 WSOP. That’s like losing your star player to injury reserve in fantasy football. I hated to do it, but I used my one-time drop on him and picked up Steve Billirakis in his place. I think that was a good pickup, but I’m not thrilled I had to use it in that spot since I was planning on dropping one of my no-limit specialists and replacing them. I understand and support what Ivey is doing, but it sure wreaked havoc on my fantasy team. Here is a look at the standings through ten events:
Feldman: 207 (8 points from Mercier in Event 11 coming)
Bradley: 185
Baldwin: 117
Pilgrim: 94
Lee: 65
Chops: 63
Phillips: 43
Wise: 32
Seif: 17
Negreanu: 6
Holloway: 0 (Points for Billirakis coming)
*Billirakis ended up finishing third in the $10K Omaha Hi/Low Championship which bumped me into 5th place!
I’ll be posting a lot of fantasy poker updates throughout the WSOP, so be sure to keep checking the blog for those. In the meantime, be sure to follow me on Twitter @ChadAHolloway. Also, I’m trying to get Phil “Unabomber” Laak to do our PokerNews Podcast sooner than later, so if you have any questions for him, shoot them to me on Twitter and I’ll do my best to ask them on the air.