Another Day in the Office - Part 12

By Neil Channing - July 2005

The short-handed $5000 nlh was one I was looking forward too. I actually got quite excited when the seat opposite was empty for half an hour as I love playing with Hellmuth. I find him so funny and I normally struggle to keep a straight face. As it happened Howard Lederer had been busy making important sounding 'phonecalls.

I had run into two pair against two pair and may have well have made a few calls myself instead of playing the first ten hands. Howard soon got involved and played very well. Everyone kept check-raising him and he kept moving in on them. He can't have always had the hand. I eventually flopped three jacks on a nice safe AcKcJd board. The 3c on the turn helped a lot, but I couldn't complain when the fourth jack came and I got paid.

I suffered a very bad run of cards on the fourth and fifth levels and eventually lost a coin-flip where everyone played the way they should. (Does the ace always have to come though?)

I could now go and watch Hugo "the horse" in the Razz. He had a big edge over half the field, who were getting the rules explained to them immediately prior to the start of the World Championship. (People just don't care, it's on TV they must play). He didn't have a lot of luck and went out after a few hours of agony. It was a bit galling to see him outlasted by a bloke on "The Lizard's" table who took a beat early and simply walked off leaving his remaining $500 stack to be anted away.

Spent the next couple of days watching Lawrence Gosney win his bracelet in the $2000 nlh (nice one mate, despite the lack of %) and getting murdered in a succession of one table satellites.(if you got a chip for losing a race in third I'd have a pocket load).

Friday's $3000 nlh had 1,000 runners and was, I felt, my last real chance of a bracelet. With the main event becoming a bit ridiculous, I don't even bother dreaming about that anymore.

I was lucky to still be in after an hour when my QQs vs AA were not too expensive thanks to the most ridiculous piece of slowplaying by my opponent. I also had the foresight to get some chips off my mate David "The Dragon" Pham with a full house before that.

In the two hours up to the dinner break I really struggled with no cards and $4,000 when the average was $11,000. Some internet genius called "Neverwin" had got loads of chips by the old "stick it in a mile behind" method and was now using them well.

Hugo and Vicky gave me a good pep-talk while we waited to eat at The Rio's Sau Paulo Cafe ("sorry it's late, everyone from the poker tournament came at the same time" - durrrrr!!). I then made my biggest decision of my tournament, not stopping for a pee, getting to my seat in time for the first hand and a chance to raise the absent Neverwin's blind with my deuces. The geezer behind seemed happy to call with his aces and that felt like the end of this years WSOP for me.

I'm not a great watcher of poker, so I didn't see the legend that is Duthie make the final of that tournament. I was gutted that he didn't win it though, and loved hearing about some of the outrageous plays he made. I spent a couple of days playing smaller tournaments at The Palms (came twelth of 140 and still lost $50) and The Bellagio (played really badly and didn't enjoy it much).

With Betusa.com sponsoring me I havn't really played many supers, so I decided to spend the next day or so trying to win some in the one table sats. These have usually been good to me but this year I've had a very poor run of even money and 4/6 losers. I'm still roughly winning on them though, but it never feels enough. Tuesday's results were helped by the deal I did with one fella. He had 13k and I had 7k when he suggested a chop of the $5120 we were playing for. I didn't want to be rude but fancied I could beat the guy. He was tired though and wanted to stop. I suggested I take $3k and he get $2120. When he took it another player asked me how I sleep at night.

Neil Channing is sponsored by Betusa.com

Click here for part 13