How I Spent The Last Three Months...By, Kristy Gazes
As you may or may not know, I typically crush at the World Series (I wish there were a font for sarcasm). But, I haven't written a blog in a while, so I guess I'll start from the last time we chatted. Come, gather round….
$25,000 WPT Championships
I was really looking forward to this event. I had 7 for 7 in cashes leading up to Bellagio. The first day was pretty mild. I ended up going into day two with about 85,000 chips (up from the starting stacks of 50,000). My stack dwindled throughout most of the day, and I was really proud of myself for hanging in there and building it back up to around 70. A lot of time though, in poker, the things that you're most proud of aren't terribly exciting. There was really only one interesting thing that happened that day, and unfortunately it was my bust-out.
People who know me well know that I'm kind of a brat about germs at the poker table. I had just gotten my area totally clean when the table got broken, and I was moved to another filthy, germ ridden table. Well this was just not going to work! So, I took out my trusty anti-bacterial hand wash, and I don't know if I inhaled too much of it or something, but I immediately had a vision (this isn't a joke).
I saw myself getting pocket Kings. I also saw myself going broke with them.
Well, wouldn't you know, I was dealt Kings on the very next hand, and wouldn't you know, I ran them directly up the ass of some other guy's Aces, cracking my 7 for 7 run.
I blame the germs.
Mirage Poker Shodown
Things got off to a great start at Mirage. I more than tripled my starting stack on day one of this event. There was interesting and gratifying hand, where I sucked out on a suck-out King (sorry, Kenna). I managed to get it all-in on an ace-high flop with Ace-Queen and was in rough shape up against Kenna James' A-K. I rolled a Queen on the turn, and it was lights out for Kenna, though if you want to see him talk about it, he had some choice words to say about me in a CardPlayer video from that day.
The next day, I couldn't even catch cards good enough to suck out with. I played patiently all day, and waited to get it in with the best of it. Once again, pocket Kings ended my day when I ran them into Jared Hamby's monster: pocket tens. Wait a second. Aren't pocket Kings supposed to beat pocket tens? Not on the internet, and not against the Waco Kid! Blam! Ten on the flop. He had to call though, I was pretty damn short. Oh well. Things were sure to be looking up at the World Series.
2007 World Series of Poker
I have played the World Series seriously since 2005. Here are my stats:
2005
0-18
2006
1-7
2007
1-10
This year's World Series was probably my most frustrating span of poker of all time! I thought things were going to be different this year, since I cashed in the second event I played. Turns out that would be the only one.
I played only three no-limit tournaments, one of which being the one I cashed in. I guess I should have played more, but I just can't handle fields of three thousand people (see above re: germs). Plus, there is so much bad fashion, I can barely stand it!
I'm just going to list out a bunch of complaints right now, and get them out of the way. More poker to come.
1) The Rio smells: This place used to be really cool. For like a week.
2) You don't get any chips: They doubled the starting stacks this year, and then they took out seventy five millions levels.
3) The floor decisions are, um, not good: Where do they find these guys? Is it like H&R Block where they get people off the street during tax season?
4) I have three words to describe the only immediate food option in the Amazon Room – the Poker Kitchen: Hi-dee-ous.
5) The dealers were pretty ok.
Although I did cash in the two figure range (low two figures), and it added up to more than I've made at the series in the last two years combined.
I'd have to say it was this: 70% of the time I ran bad, 20% of the time I played bad, and 10% of the time whoever I was playing with just simply ran good. I will say that out of ten events, I only picked up aces twice, and two of them were in razz.
The main event was the single most painful poker experience I've had since I worked as a prop at Pechanga playing $2-$4 when the air conditioning went out.
My table was full of the softest, weakest players I have ever seen in my entire life, and I couldn't beat a single one of them. I managed to get really short right before dinner, and managed to stay short until my eventual bust.
I was all-in over 15 times in the last few hours before I finally went out. There was just so much money out there to be stolen. The only problem was that the only times I ever got called – I got beat. I lost two big races near the end, and I don't know if anyone knows this or not, but you can't win the main event without winning a race or two.
I wouldn't have really minded so much, if it weren't for the fact that I had an ESPN camera on me the entire time. I don't really mind them catching the bust, but when you're having a frustrating day like I was, it's really hard to look hot and be witty. ;)
The one highlight of the series came when one of my biggest fans, and a good friend – Mark Heying came out to visit. Mark's only 15, but he's a fan of all of poker, and really brought a lot of fun to the series when I was able to introduce him to a lot of his biggest poker idols. Seeing him and how much fun he was having helped remind me to try to have a little fun with it too. Though, winning would have been nice.
The Future
The thing I'm starting to realize about poker is that for every tournament, there is really only one player who walks out satisfied. And even then, you only keep that satisfaction for only as long it takes for you to bust from the next one. Sadly, the nature of poker is ultimately disappointing. You can't win 'em all. And for most people – you won't win any. That's why my ultimate recommendation can really only be what I said above: have fun. Play part time. Read books. See movies. Maybe even get some sun once in a while. Fulfillment is easily attained in other areas in your life. Play poker for fun. Fun is easy. Winning is hard.
$25,000 WPT Championships
I was really looking forward to this event. I had 7 for 7 in cashes leading up to Bellagio. The first day was pretty mild. I ended up going into day two with about 85,000 chips (up from the starting stacks of 50,000). My stack dwindled throughout most of the day, and I was really proud of myself for hanging in there and building it back up to around 70. A lot of time though, in poker, the things that you're most proud of aren't terribly exciting. There was really only one interesting thing that happened that day, and unfortunately it was my bust-out.
People who know me well know that I'm kind of a brat about germs at the poker table. I had just gotten my area totally clean when the table got broken, and I was moved to another filthy, germ ridden table. Well this was just not going to work! So, I took out my trusty anti-bacterial hand wash, and I don't know if I inhaled too much of it or something, but I immediately had a vision (this isn't a joke).
I saw myself getting pocket Kings. I also saw myself going broke with them.
Well, wouldn't you know, I was dealt Kings on the very next hand, and wouldn't you know, I ran them directly up the ass of some other guy's Aces, cracking my 7 for 7 run.
I blame the germs.
Mirage Poker Shodown
Things got off to a great start at Mirage. I more than tripled my starting stack on day one of this event. There was interesting and gratifying hand, where I sucked out on a suck-out King (sorry, Kenna). I managed to get it all-in on an ace-high flop with Ace-Queen and was in rough shape up against Kenna James' A-K. I rolled a Queen on the turn, and it was lights out for Kenna, though if you want to see him talk about it, he had some choice words to say about me in a CardPlayer video from that day.
The next day, I couldn't even catch cards good enough to suck out with. I played patiently all day, and waited to get it in with the best of it. Once again, pocket Kings ended my day when I ran them into Jared Hamby's monster: pocket tens. Wait a second. Aren't pocket Kings supposed to beat pocket tens? Not on the internet, and not against the Waco Kid! Blam! Ten on the flop. He had to call though, I was pretty damn short. Oh well. Things were sure to be looking up at the World Series.
2007 World Series of Poker
I have played the World Series seriously since 2005. Here are my stats:
2005
0-18
2006
1-7
2007
1-10
This year's World Series was probably my most frustrating span of poker of all time! I thought things were going to be different this year, since I cashed in the second event I played. Turns out that would be the only one.
I played only three no-limit tournaments, one of which being the one I cashed in. I guess I should have played more, but I just can't handle fields of three thousand people (see above re: germs). Plus, there is so much bad fashion, I can barely stand it!
I'm just going to list out a bunch of complaints right now, and get them out of the way. More poker to come.
1) The Rio smells: This place used to be really cool. For like a week.
2) You don't get any chips: They doubled the starting stacks this year, and then they took out seventy five millions levels.
3) The floor decisions are, um, not good: Where do they find these guys? Is it like H&R Block where they get people off the street during tax season?
4) I have three words to describe the only immediate food option in the Amazon Room – the Poker Kitchen: Hi-dee-ous.
5) The dealers were pretty ok.
Although I did cash in the two figure range (low two figures), and it added up to more than I've made at the series in the last two years combined.
I'd have to say it was this: 70% of the time I ran bad, 20% of the time I played bad, and 10% of the time whoever I was playing with just simply ran good. I will say that out of ten events, I only picked up aces twice, and two of them were in razz.
The main event was the single most painful poker experience I've had since I worked as a prop at Pechanga playing $2-$4 when the air conditioning went out.
My table was full of the softest, weakest players I have ever seen in my entire life, and I couldn't beat a single one of them. I managed to get really short right before dinner, and managed to stay short until my eventual bust.
I was all-in over 15 times in the last few hours before I finally went out. There was just so much money out there to be stolen. The only problem was that the only times I ever got called – I got beat. I lost two big races near the end, and I don't know if anyone knows this or not, but you can't win the main event without winning a race or two.
I wouldn't have really minded so much, if it weren't for the fact that I had an ESPN camera on me the entire time. I don't really mind them catching the bust, but when you're having a frustrating day like I was, it's really hard to look hot and be witty. ;)
The one highlight of the series came when one of my biggest fans, and a good friend – Mark Heying came out to visit. Mark's only 15, but he's a fan of all of poker, and really brought a lot of fun to the series when I was able to introduce him to a lot of his biggest poker idols. Seeing him and how much fun he was having helped remind me to try to have a little fun with it too. Though, winning would have been nice.
The Future
The thing I'm starting to realize about poker is that for every tournament, there is really only one player who walks out satisfied. And even then, you only keep that satisfaction for only as long it takes for you to bust from the next one. Sadly, the nature of poker is ultimately disappointing. You can't win 'em all. And for most people – you won't win any. That's why my ultimate recommendation can really only be what I said above: have fun. Play part time. Read books. See movies. Maybe even get some sun once in a while. Fulfillment is easily attained in other areas in your life. Play poker for fun. Fun is easy. Winning is hard.
posted by Kristy Gazes at 7:38 PM
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