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May 23, 2012
The World Series of Poker has officially started. The first event, as
always, is the employee’s tournament. It always surprises me to see
so many players whom you really aren’t aware are casino employees
playing in the tournament. I guess most of the players who are playing
in the tournament who don’t wear a uniform or floorman’s dress in
their respective casinos are house players. Most of the regular players
in the casinos who use house players know who the house players are,
but if you are a new player or outsider, you would not know it. These
house players are normally very subtle about letting anyone know what
their situation is. In the old days, these players were called shills. That
word today is never used and rightfully so because in the old days,
shills usually did not play their own money--they played the house’s
money and basically were to play as little as possible. They played
either the nuts or almost the nuts. Their purpose was to get the games
started and play only until “live ones” entered the game.
The second tournament in the WSOP schedule is a $1,500 No-Limit
Hold’em tournament that draws the second biggest field of the whole
series. The field in the second tournament is usually only eclipsed by
the main event. It is possible that the Senior event will take over as
the second biggest draw in attendance this year or in the near future.
The third day’s event will be my first play for the Series--it is the Seven
Card Stud, High-Low Split event. It has been my most successful
tournament in the Series over the years. I have garnered a first, two
third places, a tenth place and three or four other cashes in this event
at the WSOP. When I won my bracelet in 1994 in this event, it was the
only Seven Stud Split event on the schedule, so when you won the
event, you were the World Champion of Seven Stud Split for that year.
There was some prestige involved as you had bragging rights for a
particular game for a whole year. Now, they have added one or two
other Stud Split events so you lose the World Championship moniker
when you win one of the three events.
As far as what happens after my first event, I really don’t know. In
days gone by, I would sit down with my wife and pencil in what events I
wanted to play and what tournaments my wife thought I should play.
Most of time, I would not play as many tournaments as we had penciled
in. It always seemed that, after the first few events, I could throw the
list of tournaments I was to play in the waste basket. The reasons for
not sticking to the plans was always the same--that being that some
days I just did not feel like playing. When I didn’t feel like playing, I
usually would not play. That is something I learned many years ago--
when you doubt whether you should play, don’t play; go to a movie,
play some golf, but don’t go into a tournament half-hearted. Although,
as is in life, there were a few exceptions where I did well when I went
into a tournament with a half-hearted attitude.
It reminds me of a situation that occurred to me last night as I was
playing in a tournament on the Internet. We were close to the money
and I had better than average chips. Then, a pot comes up where a
player moves all-in with a small stack. Two large stacks call, and when
it gets to me, I am holding 9, 3 off-suit. I mistakenly hit the all-in button
instead of the fold button. The two big stacks that probably had good
hands and were not raising trying to knock out the shorter stack both
hesitate and then fold. They obviously thought I have some monster
hand. Well, as you can probably guess, the short stack had two tens
and lost to my seven-high straight. So much for playing good and
making good decisions.
For whatever reason, I seem to be a little more confident going into this
year's Series. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I feel like
I have become a lot more comfortable with the crowds, the extremely
large fields and how the tournaments are structured. Plus, I am
definitely more comfortable with the layout of the Rio Hotel. So we will
see if anything materializes with this newly found optimism.
I have had several friends who follow my website tell me that they
enjoy our new feature named “Winners and Losers.” Our movie critic,
Larry, gives a short, honest and perceptive review of some of the new
movies. This blog, we have two new movie reviews from Larry the
Movie Man. One is “The Marvel’s Avengers” in 3D and the second is a
movie named “Safe.” Remember, all of Larry’s previous reviews will be
are archived so, as time goes by, you will be able to pick from a number
of films. In years gone by, it may not have been such a big benefit, but
now-a-days with Netflix, you may get some good advice on what movies
to choose to order and which ones to forget.
For What it’s Worth ...
Vince
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