Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Strangest... Weekend... Ever

Well, that was very possibly the strangest weekend of my life… Let’s recap:

FRIDAY

After working from 7:30 to 4PM, I went home and got ready for my friends’ concert that night in Boston. I drove up, filmed the show, and drove home at about 2AM. Thank God for radar detectors, as mine woke me up after I dozed off on the road home. The buzzer went off and my eyes opened up just in time to see the cop coming around the corner and the tree in front of me. Phew.

SATURDAY

Now THIS was what I had been waiting for. As I told you before, when I won my WSOP seat from Paradise Poker, they also threw in an entry into the Paradise Masters II tournament – a $600 entry to a tournament with a guaranteed $1.5M prize pool. Just getting into the tourney was nice, especially considering that I was still working off that $40 entry fee in the WSOP satellite tournament.

There were 2191 entries in the Masters II, with about 300 actually paying the $600 to get in. The top 150 players got paid, which is a little lower than normal (usually it’s top 10%). The final table – the last 10 players standing – not only got to play for a boatload of cash ($311,000 to first place), but they also got an all-expenses paid trip to the Caribbean where they will play the final table live. Not bad.

Early on, I caught some hands and made a nice little run. I was #2 overall with 1200ish players left, which meant absolutely nothing. But I was also #2 overall with about 200 players left, which is a little better feeling.

Down to only the final two tables (20 players), I was solid at #6. Normally, I would just fold every hand and ride to the Caribbean. But I kept catching hands and/or good position, so I kept taking down pots…

Finally, I was two spots behind the blinds when I looked down at my hand and saw AJ suited clubs. Now, I have a history with this hand. It’s hurt me many times. In this tournament alone, I had seen it 4 times, and every single time I ran up against pocket kings – I lost three of those four hands. But in general, I’m going to play it, and I’ll either play it strong or not play it at all.

In this situation, I had to play it strong. I raised from the 20,000 blind to 80,000. I got one call, from the small blind. The flop hit 3c-4c-5h, giving me nothing but two draws – flush and straight. The small blind checked, and I had a decision to make: take a free card or push with my last 160,000 chips.

(Allow me a short aside here. The small blind in this hand had just gotten ridiculously lucky on the previous hand, hitting a “3-outter” flush on the river to QUADRUPLE up and move just ahead of me to #4 overall, covering me by about 22,000 chips. I figured he made the pre-flop call on adrenaline and “any two cards” alone.)

I pushed. Hard. Like160,000 chips hard. And I got pushed right over a cliff when he called and showed pocket Aces. My straight draw was now toast, and I didn’t catch my club to fill the flush. I finished 19^th. I collected my prize and went to bed, still wishing I had just clicked “Fold to any bet” and coasted to the Caribbean…

SUNDAY

After sleeping in a little to recover from the tournament (I played for 10 hours straight with just a 5-minute break per hour), I took my mother to The Home Depot so she could pick up some paint for a room she’s remodeling. I had promised to help her clean up the yard and hang wall molding during the day, but the return of the rain put an end to the outdoor plans.

An hour into hanging wall molding, I was stepping off the ladder when I slipped and popped my right kneecap out of place, again, spraining my ACL in the process. Wonderful, just what I needed - more knee problems. That put an end to my entire day, aside from the weekly poker game at my place that night. I tried to play in a couple online games, but nothing materialized. Off to bed with painkillers galore…

MONDAY

Ah, the glorious day off. These are the days that I love the fact that I’m not in retail. Sleep, family barbecues, sunshine and relaxation, and poker. How can I go wrong?

(Wait – don’t answer that).

I’m not even going to tell you about the outdraws and stupid plays I witnessed Monday night in various tournaments. I finally left to go play a live game with some friends, but I was still a little sore and not really focused, so that fell apart pretty fast. Back home, and back to bed.

So I realize that much of what I just wrote has absolutely nothing to do with sports, it was more of a life update in general. But what the hell – all I did all weekend was play cards and watch the Sox (what’s new, right?).

Speaking of that, I need to pass along a very weird coincidence that has worked in my favor twice. I realize it’s a stretch, but follow along…

April 10^th: Derek Lowe gets hit by a line drive while pitching against the Diamondbacks

April 11^th: The Red Sox win big in a game against the Yankees, holding New York to only

1-run. I win my WSOP & Masters II Entries

May 27^th: Derek Lowe gets hit by a line drive while pitching against the Diamondbacks

May 28^th: The Red Sox win big in a game against the Yankees, holding New York to only 1-

run. I cash while playing in the Masters II tournament.

Now, I’m not saying there’s a link, but the Dodgers are playing the Daimondbacks two days before I leave for Vegas for the WSOP. And the Red Sox are playing the Yankees the next weekend. Maybe the stars will align one more time…

(Cue Twilight Zone theme)

Lata.