Lost Episode 15: Event #35, $1500 NL Holdem

After two days off and then having to call in sick, it felt like I had missed a lot of the tournament. The last event that I worked was #27 and today was #35, another big field $1500 no-limit holdem event. At one of my first few tables, I dealt to Tom McEvoy a noted author associated with the 2+2 publishing group. I had read a few of his books a couple of years back and thought to myself that it never occurred to me at that time that some day I might actually deal to the author. He has some significant TV time, having been on the tournament circuit for close to 30 years. He won the WSOP main event in 1983 and about 4 other bracelets since.

Early in the day, I had a problem with a player up from their seat. The Tournament Directors' Association (TDA) rules, adopted by the WSOP require that a player be in or at his seat by the time the last card is dealt to the button in order to play the hand. I had someone get a little irritated when he was repeatedly walking off to the rope 10-15 feet away to talk with a spectator/friend. In most tournaments, if a player is withing eyesight, or they make me aware of their staying close to the table, I would let them play the hand - particularly, if they make eye contact with me or say something. But uniform enforcement of the rules is paramount in big tournaments, so I was forced to kill his hand a couple of times and then it seemed as if he was trying to test me. It never came to a floor call, but it irritated me enough to have made a note in my downs book.

Later on, I dealt to Aaron Kanter, who final tabled the main event a couple of years ago, as well as Ted Lawson and Matthew Hilger. I really think Hilger is an underrated author, there is a ton of well presented information in both of his books that I have read. They are more like textbooks that can be used as reference material.

I finally broke the poker hottie curse when I pushed into a table with Isabelle Mercier. I think I read in one of the magazines that she has been around poker all her life and worked as a floor person at the Aviation Club in Paris, France until she was old enough to play/compete in casino tournaments. I almost crushed her early in the down, but the hand turned around into a 'good beat', at least for her. She had a mid-sized stack, raised aggressively pre-flop, then the big stack went over the top and put her to the test for all her chips. She had a great read and called with J-J and the big stack tabled a very weak ace. Unfortunately, the flop came Q-A-A, and her spirit was quickly deflated. The turn did not help, but I spiked a two outer for her on the river. A third jack gave filled her up and doubled her stack, but the big stack still had her covered by a decent margin. Then, on the last hand of the down, she got it all in with A-K against the same guy, who tabled pocket tens. A third ten came out on the flop and she never improved, causing her tournament exit.

In all, I logged 14 tournament downs on this day, all in the same event. Two friends from Houston, Chad Rhoten and Kim Flores, were in town for the series and competed in this event. I saw both of them, but never ended up assigned to tables they were at. If I remember correctly, Chad got busted by David Pham and Kim survived past the dinner break.