WSOP Day 2: Mercier, Moneymaker and Me...by Texter

I got woken up at 6 am Vegas time by Smoothcallers Text message to my cell phone; his plane is delayed in Houston due to thunderstorms and he'll be in later. Great so now I'm awake, and as you all know, once you wake up in Vegas it's almost impossible to go back to sleep due to the visions of money to be won dancing through your head.

I take a shower (did I mention how huge the bathrooms at the Gold Coast are...you literally have to climb in the tub to shut the bathroom door, you cannot be physically on the pot and close the door at the same time); and head downstairs to signup for the 10 am tourney and eat some breakfast (which is actually good at the Gold Coast; most of the lunch and dinner food there is crap). I have about two hours to kill so I head over to the Rio to see if anything exciting is happening at the WSOP since it is the beginning of Satellite day and some other tourneys are winding down. It's a morgue, there is virtually nobody in the Amazon room which is a big change from the day before.

So I cruise the room and check out the satellite structures, $175, $225, $375 and up...too rich for my blood.

I head back over to the Gold Coast to play in the 10 am tourney; which to say the least is the worst tourney in the history of poker. It costs $22 and I'm playing in it to kill time waiting for Smoothcaller, Gato, and baddog to arrive in town. I'm reading the tourney flyer and notice that $7 of the $22 goes to pay juice and tip the dealers, so basically I'm paying 32% vig right off the bat...ouch. The tourney is limit hold'em for the first hour and no limit after that the blinds start at 25/50 and you start with $1k in chips - 15 minute blinds, like I said worst tourney ever; but it's during the WSOP and the tourney is full with plenty of alternates. I do ok the first couple levels after getting a flush and flopping quad 3's. Then I lose a big hand to a guy who catches a flush on the river to beat my straight, tough to protect a hand during limit play. I eventually get knocked out during no limit play with 3c4c, when I get two pair on the river and lose to a straight.

By this time the other Lizard crew members are in town eating lunch over at Bally's so I play in the 2-4 LHE game at the GC (Gold Coast) since it is the only game running while I wait for them to come check in. If you've never played very low limit hold'em it goes something like this...

1. There are at least 4 really really old people playing who are either really nice or a crusty old bastard.
2. At least 6 of the 10 people see the flop on every hand (why not the big blind is only $2).
3. Even if you have AA, you will get your head kicked in by a flush more often than at other limits since people play any two suited all the time. (I just ran a simulation where AA was up against two flush draws and somebody with KQos...actually over a 50% favorite...not bad).
4. There isn't a whole lot of raising until someone hits their hand on the turn...and if the person raising is old go ahead and fold.
5. The rake is huge vs the stakes, 10% up to $3 plus money for the high hand jackpots....good luck beating that in the long term.

Eventually, smooth shows up and we play some 4-8 limit hold'em until it's time to go interview Isabelle Mercier at the Rio, the one good thing about the GC poker room is that the cocktail waitress is very fast, so I'm feeling pretty good after about 5 coronas (I figure if I'm going to play like the master I may as well drink like him). We head over there and the Pokerstars suite is gone due to some dental convention taking their space, so the interview is postponed until the next day. We meet up with Gato and she decides to play in a one table satellite for $175. We go sweat her table which takes a few minutes to fill up...and who sits to her immediate right but Stacy Matuson who you may remember from the WPT Aruba final table:

There are also a surprising number of pro's playing in the satellites; Stacy says they are easy money, we see Humberto Brenes one table away playing in one and several other bigger names playing.

We head over to the diner in the Rio and grab some dinner, then head back to the Amazon to check on Gato's status, she's been knocked out and it's down to Stacy and some other guy. They trade chips for awhile and Stacy makes a terrible call with KQ vs the guys AT. She takes the lead when a Q hits but loses the hand when an A hits on the turn...she's crippled and we head back to the GC to get ready for the "Naked Poker" party at the Hard Rock.

We get to the party around 9:45 and the suite is unbelievable, there is a jacuzzi in the living room, a bowling alley, the biggest bathroom I've ever seen, and a bunch of hot girls dancing on tables.
The party was pretty cool but the celebs hadn't shown up and were just arriving in Vegas (the stars being Laura Prepon, Danny Masterson and some others); the only "star" currently at the party was Ron Jeremy whose hand I didn't really want to shake.

There were some poker celebs there however, Tony G and the Shulmans were there and they were all pretty cool. Tony G's poker site "TonyGpoker" is on the same network as Naked Poker. They had all kinds of food, booze and free cheezy crap (t shirts etc...), so we loaded up. By this time it's around 11:30 and we debate waiting for the stars (actually only Laura since she's pretty hot) and decided to head over to the palms to meet up with team lizard for some poker.

Smooth and I put our names on the $1/$2 No limit list (we're high rollers baby!) and get seated at the $4/$8 limit table, I start drinking immediately since I don't want to curtail my buzz and want to look like a crazy gambler. About 3 hands in some guy puts out a live straddle and another guy raises, smooth looks down at AA and ends up winning a pretty big pot. They call his name for the $1/$2 but he turns it down since he's winning. They call me and I take my $120 to the table (I was up $20). Low and behold who's sitting right across from me?

That's right Chris Moneymaker WSOP champ from 2003. I think he has a deal to play at the Palms or something since they say he's there all the time. He graciously lets me take his pic and seems like a loose player. He raises a lot of flops and gets people to play back at him quite a bit. I'm a little nervous at first but hope I can take advantage of someone wanting to bluff Chris. A couple times around the table and it's fold...fold...fold...limp fold... Finally, I'm in the big blind and get 5hTh and call behind Moneymaker and the guy two to his left's limps. The flop comes down QhJs,8h, so I have a gutshot and a flush draw. I bet $10, Moneymaker raises to $30, and the other guy goes all in (he has me covered). I call and MM folds. The turn is a 5 and river is the 3 of hearts. The other guy had QT. So I double up and go back to endless folding. Chris wants to raise the stakes to $5/$10 which I am too chicken to play since I only have $500 on me at the moment. The table discusses it for a while and decides to boost the stakes to $2/$5. I decide to head over to the low limit room since $2/$5 is still rich for my current bankroll. The brush apologizes for raising the stakes and gives me a spot at the $1/$2 NL game in the other room.

This turns out to be the craziest game, I've ever played in...young 20 something internet players are drinking vodka and red bull left and right, there is a hearing impared guy who keeps making mistakes (like turning his hand over early..which cost him a big pot), and a couple tight players with the deer in the headlights look. I soon have this same look as the internet guys are playing crazy just for fun (they go by the names like Steamboat & Ahh_Snapp) they party/live with the best online players in the world (Genius28-Chris Lee/GreenPlastic-Taylor Caby/Hallingol etc...); they are obvious online winners and are splashing money around like candy. One guy has gone allin blind 10 times in a row; another is so drunk he actually wears one of our PokerLizard shirts over his clothes and keeps begging for some of my action (if I lose I only pay half and he pays the other half but if I win he gets half the winnings). So basically it's a waiting game, I eventually get AdKd and flop the nut flush, I check and one of the guys goes all in, I double up. Every so often everyone at the table will tip the dealer $2 for the hell of it...we're all having a good time and I'm getting progressively drunker...good times.

Eventually the internet guys head to a house they've rented in Henderson for the WSOP and it's down to me, Smooth and 3 other players who are so bad we keep playing until around 8 am. I end up leaving with $546, would've been more but I gave ahh_snap some of my action to the tune of about $120. Walking back to the GC from the Palms is startling to my body since it is now daytime and hot. I stumble across Flamingo and go to bed.