Brighton Jet Set Festival

By Stefan Ball- January 2005

I'm an online player. Apart from my Slough Palace appearances over the last year - twice a month on average, maybe - my only other live tournament was the 2004 WSOP. I won that seat in a Pokerstars freeroll, and got there playing very aggressively and (by the time it finished at 3am) more than three parts pissed.

In the WSOP itself I played differently - tight and nervous, it was my first time in a casino - but got lucky with an AK all-in call to survive the first day with a reasonable stack. When I came back for the second day I was redrawn to a table full of big hitters. The blinds went up. Suddenly I was low chip man and getting no cards. Towards the end I raised with pocket tens and the big blind called. Flop Q high, he checks, I bet, and he goes over the top all in.

My WSOP nemesis had shades on. As soon as he'd thrown the chips in he whipped the glasses off and glared at me right between the eyes - what the body language people call a power stare. That shit doesn't happen online, and it got to me. I tried to think and couldn't and folded my tens, leaving my stack crippled. Soon I was all in and all out when my raise from the button with KJ offsuit got called by the big blind's KK.

That was nearly a year ago. About once a day I think, I should have called Mr Shades with my tens. Why would he be trying to intimidate me into folding, except that he had nothing? I put him now on a small pair, sixes or sevens.

So coming to Brighton, via an online satellite on GetMinted, the main target I had was not to be nervous and not to be run over. Woe betide any bastard in shades who tried to bluff me out with shit! I won the Slough Palace freezeout, for Christ's sake. (Only once, I know, but still...)

My son was in a football game Saturday morning, so I didn't drive down to Brighton until the afternoon. I went straight to the Rendezvous Casino to pick up my membership card and have a look around. Mel had told me the card room was small, and she wasn't kidding - very compact and bijou, as the estate agents would say, and crammed with tables - but the casino was relaxed not too swanky. The degenerate gambler in me felt right at home.

I drove to my hotel and found a parking space and made a cup of PG Tips, then went back to the casino about seven o'clock. Caught sight of 'young' Martin F and said hello before the tournament started. Other than that I recognised a few faces from Late Night Poker and so on, but the only one I could put a name to was Tony 'Hit Man' Hakki. Must read Poker Europa more carefully and learn some names!

The tournament started with 8,500 chips and 25-50 blinds. Second hand in I found AQ on the button, but there was a big raise and an all-in in front of me and I folded it without a murmur. Didn't want to go out in the first round to somebody's medium pair, and I had nothing invested in the pot. The opener folded so I don't know what the all-in had.

Ten minutes or so later I got involved in a hand. With a couple of limpers in I called with JTs in about sixth position. I caught a dream flop - 9QK rainbow - and one of the limpers bet out into it. This was the all-in man from earlier, so I already had him down as very aggressive and figured he might bet the hand for me. I called, everyone else folded. The turn was a blank. He stared me out for a long time. From behind my shades (I took delivery of new shades a few days before - if you can't beat 'em, join 'em - then beat 'em!) I stared him right back. He bet again. I called. He'd only limped in preflop so I put him on kings or maybe - if I was lucky - kings up. The river was another blank and this time he checked. I went all in and he called and mucked and I had doubled up.

Three seats to my left was another guy in shades. He had an iPod playing, and a Hellmuth-like stance at the table, with his fist pushed into his mouth to hide half his face. Mr iPod had cufflinks that said 'poker professional' and played very aggressively and fairly loose.

Over the next hour or so nothing much happened. I took a few blinds with standard raises and standard raising hands, and folded once when Mr iPod came over the top of my raise. The blinds were still small, I had chips and a pair of sevens and figured I was 50/50 at best.

A bit later I limped with QTs in late position. The flop of J9x gave me a straight draw, and the big blind bet the minimum and got a caller, so I had good odds to make it in one card. And I did: a king came on the turn. Big blind bet small again. I put in a big raise because the king made two hearts on board and I didn't want him to have a cheap card to beat me with a flush. I expected him to fold, but he called straight away. Did he have the same as me? - no, because he would have re-raised, surely. The river was a ten, and he went all in at once. Now I was worried - was he bad enough to chase with AQ? - but it seemed unlikely (this wasn't online play, remember) so I called. He had QJ, and had muppeted the straight on the river. We chopped the pot.

Meanwhile a new player had joined on my immediate right. He seemed to be a regular, and was doing his best to bully and wind up the iPod man, calling his raises and in one hand - they were both betting hard - going all in on the river and forcing iPod to fold. In that hand the bully threw his cards face up on the table, showing everyone two rags. It was a complete bluff. Mr iPod to his credit said nothing and didn't react, but you could feel the hatred in the air and if iPod wasn't on tilt he was damn close. He went all-in several times over the next few rounds, but nobody called him and he built his stack back up. And the bully promptly threw away most of his chips to other players.

It was lucky for me that he didn't keep hold of them longer, because a bit later I took a hit from the bully myself. I got dealt the dreaded AA in the big blind. Everyone folded to the bully in the small blind, who flat called. I put in a standard raise. He called and we saw a flop of babies, a 4 among them. He checked and I bet and he went all in. I thought he probably had a pocket pair or maybe nothing at all, and I called. I was right about the pocket pair - he had pocket 44s and had made a set on the flop. Fortunately I had him covered and was no worse than back to my starting stack.

The next notable hand was played heads up with a thoughtful player who seemed to be a pro (even if he didn't have iPod's poker professional cufflinks). I got dealt 66 and the flop was 457, no particular suits. I liked this flop! - so when he checked I put in a big bet. He thought about it and called. The turn was completely forgettable and we both checked. The river was also a nothing, so all I had was my original pair of sixes.

He played with his chips for a while then put in a small bet. I was a bit surprised by this. Why a small bet? Was he trying to extract value? The more I thought about it the more I thought that he was stealing on the cheap, with a bet that wouldn't hurt him too badly if he got called. On the other hand, if I raised and he had a monster I was going to suffer badly. I figured I was getting value from the pot and called, and he mucked at once. I showed the 66 anyway because I wanted it known that I would make calls if I thought I had the best of it.

Then there was a spectacular hand - one of those rollercoaster hands that has people online typing 'only on laddies' or 'typical riverstars' or 'this always happens on ub' or whatever. The bully was out by now and the thoughtful player, who had been moved to another table for fifteen minutes or so, had come back to us with a bigger stack and a new seat on my right. Another new guy at our table was raising every other deal and was pretty rude to the dealer. It was him - I'll call him Rudy - and the thoughtful guy who got involved.

It started when Rudy raised preflop, yet again. The thoughtful guy reraised. Rudy blinked and shoved in all his chips. The thoughtful guy had him well covered, and called right away. Rudy turned over QQ. Thoughtful had 99.

The dealer burned and turned, one card at a time. (That was something that surprised me, after Vegas: hardly any of the dealers did the three-cards-at-once flop. I liked it better one card at a time, because you could watch players' reactions as each was turned and maybe hope to get a read.) First out was a nine. Rudy not happy. Then a blank. Then a queen! Rudy all smiles.

Burn and turn: a blank. Burn and turn: a nine! For half a second I thought, and I think Rudy might have thought, wow, a full house. Half a second later Rudy totters from the table. A player opposite from me is all sympathy. Rudy gone he says, 'Never did like that miserable fucker.'

I was up to about 25,000 chips when I lost a hand to iPod - if I remember right he had a straight to my big two pair - and I dropped to about 10,000. A few hands later I saw a chance to steal the blinds and raised iPod's big blind with 55. Quick as a flash he went all in. He had me more than covered, and going all in seemed excessive, like he was trying to scare me out. The longer I looked at him in his Hellmuth pose with his face covered, the more I thought I was ahead. Okay, I know you don't want to call to much in no limit poker, you'd much rather bet. But even so. remember those two tens?

I called. He turned over A2 offsuit. He got no help from the board and I was back up to 20,000 or so.

There were a couple of hours more play. The iPod guy went out, seething, when the river card paired the board and his flopped two small pair lost to pocket kings. The thoughtful guy was moved yet again (sixth time, he reckoned), only to be moved back to our table a dozen hands later (seventh time). A quiet guy joined on my right and proceeded to raise my first two blinds. First time I had AKs and went all in at once. He folded, showed me AT. Second time I had two tens and put in a pot-sized raise. He thought and thought then folded K7s, showing them to me. I showed him my tens, then regretted it. Maybe I should have kept him guessing. Anyway, he left my blinds alone after that.

Then a guy joined our table who took it over completely: very talkative, very rude, very loud and, you have to say, very funny. He had an Armani bobble hat (an Armani bobble hat!?) and a lot of chips. It was getting late, and I was getting tired, and maybe I relaxed too much because I did the one really stupid thing I did the whole event. I was small blind and Armani threw a chip in. I wasn't listening or watching properly and I assumed he had called. Players folded to me, and I look down and found KT offsuit. I'd only been playing solid values for a while, but if I could get in for half a bet I could afford a small speculation, so I announced 'call' and threw in a 500 chip.

That's when I saw the white 5k chip that Armani had thrown in as a raise. Shit! I'd announced call so I had to stick the rest in. Worse, it was pretty bloody obvious that I hadn't meant to call the raise, so I had helpfully announced that I was unlikely to have solid values. The big blind folded. I don't remember what the flop was because I was staring so hard at Armani, looking for a sign of strength or weakness. Anyway, we both checked it down and got not help and he turned over AT, unimproved, to take the pot. So I got off lightly, and maybe could have tried to steal it. at the risk of going out with nothing.

At about 2.45am another player or two busted out - one was Roberto something? - had facial hair like Zorro - which left 13 runners of the 67 who started. The tournament was down to pay the top 12, so there was a lot of talk about taking £500 off the top prize to make sure everybody left got paid. As one of the smaller stacks I was happy about this, and it was cool too that even the big stacks were saying yes, it was right, cos everyone left would have to come back for the second day and should get expenses at least. One player on the other table, though, wouldn't budge. He said he'd be okay for it to happen but only for players who survived until the morning. Anybody out in 13th tonight would get zilch.

Clearly this put a premium on survival. On our table with five minutes left plus three hands there was a lot of dwelling for five minutes, then a lot of folding in the next three hands. One guy folded AQ and showed it.

That was the last real action of the first day. We packed up at three, and by four o'clock I was in bed.

And by seven o'clock I was awake. Damn! 12 years of early rising kids and I can't lie in even on a Sunday. I read for a bit, had breakfast, walked around, went to the Marina, walked around, Pizza Express, cappuccino and . 2.30 p.m. back in the casino ready to start. Had a chat with Martin who was still in and doing well with something over 50k, and we started playing again at 3 p.m.

Now everyone was in the money it was time for the short stacks to get aggressive, and I was one of those. The next few out would all get £500 so there was no point clinging on to move from 13th to 12th. I went all in a couple of times and stole blinds with the sort of hands that you steal blinds with (don't want to give too much away here!). This kept my stack at around 25k while around me other short stacks - and some not so short - were trying to steal and getting called. It was surprising how quickly people went out, and within maybe 45 minutes we were down from 13 to 9 and I was at the final table.

I still had hopes to win the damn thing. We've all done it before - two quick all ins called by bigger stacks and you are chip leader. It didn't happen. My cards dried up completely. I still had my 25k and figured I could wait for two rounds before I had to get silly, but those rounds came and went without a single playable hand - no aces, no pairs, nothing connected and nothing suited. Absolute crap. I had to double-check the dealer's name badge to be sure it wasn't Eugene.

Meantime other players were having confrontations. A guy went in with a big ace and got called by a pair, and was out in 9th. I had already moved up to 8th position and a guaranteed payout of £1.3k by just sitting and folding. But I couldn't hope to rise higher because now I was down to a tad over 15k and was by far the shortest stack.

With the blinds coming round fasts I finally got half a hand - A7 offsuit - and I shoved it all in. A player around the table had a think and called me with a small pair, and, damn! - it would be! - it was two sevens. Flop, turn, river, no help, and I'm gone.

Standing around for a bit, as you do, I earwigged a conversation between the Hit Man and another player. The other player was saying that he'd given up playing on the internet because he just kept losing. He couldn't cope with the way people played online. 'Fucking AK and he just limps in preflop? How are you supposed to deal with that?' The Hit Man agreed and said that he was mainly playing Omaha online now because Hold Em was too hard to read.

And when I picked up my money from the cashier - crisp £50 notes, yum - the tournament director said, with a faint note of surprise, 'Oh, the internet guy.'

I was really happy with how I played - although now, writing this down, I keep wondering 'was that right? - what if I had done something else instead?' I guess that's a good attitude to have. Anyway, I didn't feel out of place among the pros and regulars. I felt I made good calls and good lay-downs, and nursed my stack when I had to and attacked when I had to. In 8 or so hours of actual play I only had a pocket pair higher than tens once (the aces that got cracked), and only one AK - so it wasn't as if the deck was running over me.

Best of all, though, I felt I adapted properly to the differences between online and real-world play. I did a much better job of putting people on hands - still something I need to work at - and gave good players credit (but not too much credit) for having good hands when they put their money in. Maybe I did better job of adapting than some of the real world pros do when they step into the virtual world.

Now I just need to get back to the WSOP and get heads-up again with Mr Shades. Beware the internet guy: I have sunglasses as well. Two tens, please, dealer.