Terry-Ann (The Silent Assassin) and I were staying at the historic Seaview, as we had a grand get-away planned to meet our good friend Robert "SIQueens" Portas.
Things didn't quite go as planned. A major traffic accident closed the Lincoln Tunnel, causing an hour and a half delay to get out of New York.
We completed the trek, did our usual, lunch at Romanelli's, manicues, check into the Seqview, grab some down time, after all the tournament didn't start until 7 p.m. I got there abut 6:45. Terry-Ann decided not to play, as she heard her favorite video poker game was up to $95,000 and got the "call."
Well, 15 minutes later, I'm seated in the tournament, surrounded by some Borgata grinders who I recognize as being regulars. I look down and see some players with larger stacks than starting chips and ask when did the tournament start. I'm dismayed to find out the starting for the 7 p.m. tournament on Friday nights starts at 6 p.m. I'm 45 minutes late and 350 chips light. "Oh, well, I think to myself, Phil Hellmuth always starts 45 minutes later!" (Not that I'm comparing myself to the infamous Poker Brat, but ...
So with one feared player to my right and another to my left, both with far larger stacks than I have, I decide to play it tight until the antes kick in. Boom. Pocket Jacks (Fishhooks). The player on my right comes in for a raise, I call, the rest of the table folds. The flop comes, I think I'm ahead, the player on my right makes a continuation bet (c-bet) and I call. The turn brings a another low card, he checks, I fire a 3/4ths bet at the pot and take it down.
The vey next hand, pocket jacks again, this time I'm out of position against a very smart player, so I come in for a raise of 625, he calls, the flop comes, I raise 1375, he calls, the turn, I raise 1800, he fires back four thousand, I call and "check blind." He taps the table on the river, I show my jacks and he mucks. Whew!
Terry-Ann comes back, She sits down, announcing that she's through with video poker (for about the 100th time) and decides to rail (watch) me. It is a strange thing that happens when she sits and watches: I play very well. Not any better than I normally do and not any worse but "things simply work out."
We get to the third table and I run into a young player who I call "The Hat" because of the floppy ugly hat he wears. For some reason he glares at me, disecting every play I mae with the famous poker phrase of, "Nice Hand, sir," which of course means he thinks that I play like a donkey.
I'm in the big blind, and there are five callers (limpers) into the pot when I look down at QJ suited. I check and we take a flop and I hit the nuts (AKQJ-T) for the Broadway Straight. I check, one min-raise (minimum) four callers. It comes back to me and I announce, "raise." I stand, put on my cyclopse sun glasses, towering over the table, I anounce, "all in." Terry-Ann is immediately on her feet, the entire table (it seems) goes into the tank, until the button calls my all in. My hand holds up and I have about 65,000 in tournament chips.
The next hand, I slow play a flopped ace, for aces, "The Hat" moves all in, I snap call, he flings his hat across the room and I know I'm ahead of his second pair of Queens. My aces hold up, he leaves with a snarl and some utterance.
I find myself at the final table about 5th in chips and they are paying the top five people. I knock out one player with a great call of just Ace high to his bluff, take a comfortaqble lead.
When we get down to six players, I ask the table if they want to have a save for the bubble boy. Robert Portas is laughing, because he doesn't know what's going on and finds live poker very amusing and entertaining. Terry-Ann explains itto him and I take off my Nike hat and we "pass the hat" for $50 a man. Nice bubble.
I knock out the sixth player; the fivth player falls quickly. We're down to four, most of us have equal chips except for the chip leader who has about 20,000 chips more than the rest of us. I do the math and announce that if we chop the pot (Portas is really astonished at what's going on) that we all end up with second place money. The chip leader Mr. No-Chop. Still says, "no." I tell him I'm going o be forced to move all in on him all the time. He doesn't believe me and I proceed to move all in three times in a row. He decides that it is timeto become Mr. Chop-Pot, and we all get dealt the final hand, in which I get a full house to take the unofficial win.
It was great. I get a big monkey off my back with a win at Borgata, one of the toughest tournaments in Alantic City. Terry-Ann, Bob and I go out for a midnight (2 a.m.) celebration and bask in th glory of a win.
Dan "O"
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