Thursday, February 23, 2006

This is the business we've chosen: The long ride to play one hand

The second day of the invitational started today at 6:30 PM (PST); since we're staying at a Anaheim hotel near Disneyland, usually this means a 20-25 minutes drive, but this is LA, so I was expecting a 90 minutes drive, since yesterday it took that long to arrive to Commerce Casino, it took "only" one hour this time, and I was ready to play.
Blinds were 600-1200 with 200 ante, so 3600 each pot and round; with 9800 my M was really low, still I don't get desperate in these situations, since I know good players are just waiting to take advantage of the low stacks desperate moves. I folded my first 3 hands, T2, J2 and 93; now I had to put the 1200 big blind; UTG raised to 2700, kind of weird raise, folded to me and I was very happy to find AK, of course I went AI for 9000 total, he had to call 6300, I was pretty sure he was going to call, but I liked my chances, he thought for a while and then called. Of course you need to think when you're calling with A3c; the "race" was on and I was just happy to double up so fast or so I thought, because the happiness ended with a 3 in the flop and I was out for the nth time in my first AI of the tourney. He said the usual "sorry", I said the usual "nice hand" (like we both mean it) and I drove back to the hotel after my glorious 2nd day showing, in the way back I could not help but to think in the words of Hyman Roth in the Godfather Part II, one of the best movies ever; after Michael Corleone asked him, who gave the order to kill him:

"There was this kid I grew up with - he was younger than me. Sorta looked up to me - you know. We did our first work together - worked our way out of the street. Things were good, we made the most of it. During Prohibition - we ran molasses into Canada - made a fortune - you father, too. As much as anyone, I loved him - and trusted him. Later on he had an idea - to build a city out of a desert stop-over for GI's on the way to the West Coast. That kid's name was Moe Green - and the city he invented was Las Vegas. This was a great man - a man of vision and guts. And there isn't even a plaque - or a signpost - or a statue of him in that town! Someone put a bullet through his eye. No one knows who gave the order - when I heard it, I wasn't angry; I knew Moe - I knew he was head-strong, talking loud, saying stupid things. So when he turned up dead - I let it go. And I said to myself, this is the business we've chosen - I didn't ask who gave the order - because it had nothing to do with business! "

So, you don't cry, you don't ask why you keep getting bad beats in WPT events. You don't ask who gave the order.

This is the business we've chosen.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I come back from a break online, push AK as a big favorite, and lose; at least I can be back in another tournament or doing something else within minutes.

Not sure how I'll react to a bad beat in a big live tournament.