I'm back from
Camp Hellmuth. It was such a fantastic weekend. I'm going to try to outline everything as it happened and not miss very much of it. For the non-poker player, I apologize for any content that you don't get. If you have a question, ask it in the comments and I'll be happy to answer it. This was primarily a weekend all about poker. What can I do?
Friday - Day 1 - Party at Pure/Cash GameMark picked me up from the airport at 5:30 with a masterful plan. Before Pure, we hit In n' Out. A solid burger later and we're on our way to Caesar's. The party at Pure was okay. It was open bar but we didn't really know anyone and mingling was a little bit awkward. After an hour or so all of the pros started showing up. Phil Hellmuth got there and ordered a bottle of Dom Perignon which wasn't surprising as everyone knows it is his drink. So at a place with a ridiculous open bar, he ends up buying a bottle of champagne. When you are Phil though, that makes perfect sense.
After a while (about 3 Belvedere and tonics and a rum and coke for me), Phil gets on the microphone to introduce all of the pros and generally joke around. On hand for the camp are Antonio "The Magician" Esfandiari our fashion icon, Evelyn Ng, Scott Fischman, John Bonetti, Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, Shawn Rice, Mark Kroon (a.k.a. Poker Ho), and Alex Outhred among others. Phil went through a litany of stories about everyone and their accomplishments and what not. This was the best part of the function. We weren't too bummed when it was over though.
The poker room at Caesar's was right next to Pure. Swartz gave me the courtesy of sitting with me at $1/$2 table instead of playing $2/$5 or higher which is more in line with his bankroll and no limit cash game skills. We both came out on the plus side. I felt like I played great and I booked a nice win. I didn't get my money in bad and I felt like I hardly was ever at risk. This is a great thing at the no limit table. We didn't get out of the poker room too late so we could get some sleep for the next day.
Saturday - Day 2 - 1st 3 Seminars/More Cash GamesThe first seminar was at 9. Getting a room full of poker players together at 9 in the morning is a feat so you knew something good must be going on. The 1st presentation was given by Joe Navarro. Joe is a retired FBI guy. Our impression of him was that he was sort of a a-hole but he was also wicked smart. We would have listened to him talk for quite a bit longer than we did. Joe isn't a poker player. He's an expert at reading people and decoding non-verbal behavior. He talked about all kinds of things to look for at the poker table and debunked some non-verbal myths like looking up and to the left when you are telling a lie. He even outlined some tells that he observed on Phil Hellmuth and other pros. Many of us recognized these things from watching them play. One example was how Phil used to soothe himself by rubbing his arms when he was weak. These pacifying behaviors were the tip of the iceberg on this presentation which was well-organized, great, and infinitely helpful. Much of what I learned over the weekend, I learned here. One great thing that happened here also was when Antonio walked in at 9:15 with his dad. Joe was just shocked to see him. Antonio is known to some as the "prince of Vegas" so he isn't exactly a morning person. Of course, he was wearing sunglasses indoors for pretty much the whole weekend. My grade for Navarro: A-
The second seminar was given by Antonio. It was all about being a more aggressive player. He started this off by saying, "we're going to talk about aggression today, because that's pretty much all I know about poker." That's a little bit less than true. Mark and I used to think Antonio was an arrogant ass, but reading his articles in
Bluff and seeing more of him on TV, we realized what a stud he really is. Seeing him and meeting him at the camp this week did nothing but reinforce that opinion. The presentation was decent in my mind. I didn't get a lot out of it. There were a couple of interesting quotes though. Here are a couple.
"No one ever makes a hand."
"If it's folded to you on the button, it's unethical not to raise."
The crowd had a ton of questions for Antonio and he handled all of them quite well, I thought, mostly with humor. My grade for Antonio: B
The third seminar was given by Scott Fischman. He was fairly disorganized and had all of about 8 slides for a 90 minute presentation. His presentation was about winning online sit n' go's. These are one table tournaments (6 or 10 people) for those of you that are unfamiliar with the concept. I'm actually using his strategy now. I won my 1st one and I've gone out in 5th in the next 2 for a small profit. Phil Hellmuth walked in like the king of the world about ten minutes in and proceeded to tell us that Summer Altice was hitting on him the night before and his wife was none too happy. I wanted to learn about sit n' go's so this interruption went on a little too long. Anyway, Scott fired back up and did a good job. Later in the weekend, it would become apparent that Scott is pretty much a genius when it comes to poker strategy and he has instant recognition for optimal play, even in bizarre scenarios that he has had no time to consider. In his presentations he equated sit n' go's to a video game. Now that I understand the strategy for winning these, I'm inclined to agree. I was playing any no limit sng totally incorrectly, I realize now. I don't know much about tournament strategy though and I rarely play nl sng's so this wasn't exactly a big problem in my life. I love his strategy he outlined. What I didn't love is when he referred to bad plays or bad ideas as "gay" twice in his presentation. I understand the guy is just a poker player but using that as a derogatory adjective just isn't called for at all under any circumstances. I never got a chance to say anything to him about it, but I would have if given the opportunity. I would get a little justice later though, as I'll describe later. My grade for Fischman: C+
After Fischman, we had a lunch break. Mark and I chose Spago. We both had pasta and I got a Blueberry Mojito which was at least semi-triflin'. After lunch we had to get back for the no limit tournament. This was some good times. We would play down to the final 10. and the final table would be the next day. We had one seat reserved for a pro at each table and they would rotate the pros around every 30 minutes or so. The pro always had to show their cards. The prizes were $10k for first and I don't even remember the rest. My table was pretty solid. I had this girl on my left that really liked to re-raise me. She always had a hand though with just one exception when she made a pretty sick bluff on me with 76o on an AT4 board. I had to lay down AQ and I was ill when she showed me her cards. That was a bad idea for her, by the way. I was happy in one hand where I had 99 one off the button, I raised. She came over the top of me for 3x my raise. The flop came 742 rainbow. I checked to her. She made a bet of a little more than the pot. I looked at her and just knew I was beat. I laid down my 9s and 30 seconds later she told me she had aces. I know she wasn't telling me lies. I didn't ask her, she just wanted to tell me. We were friendly despite her being an insane gum chomper that made me resort to my iPod. I would fold on the flop 4 times to someone with aces throughout the course of the day, 3 times in the tournament and once in the cash game. I was dodging bullets all day. Anyway, Swartz busted out reasonably early on along with many of the pros, so he hit the cash games for a while. I trudged on.
Over the course of the tournament, I had Shawn Rice, The Grinder, and Evelyn Ng. Evelyn was there for a long time giving all kinds of advice about "not getting yourself in trouble", blah, blah. That's what you tell a newcomer to the game. I don't want to hear that crap. Don't tell me not to limp under the gun when I have plenty of chips and the blinds are inconsequential. This is why I think Evelyn doesn't win anything. She actually plays this way. Shawn Rice was tough. I didn't like having him at my table. I really didn't like it when he told me I had AQ and he was right. I don't even want to get into how sick The Grinder was either. I disagreed with him in this one hand where I called a guy with AQ for a ton of chips. The guy turned out to have A8s and suck out on me of course. He thought both of our plays were off. I thought the guy put me on a steal as I had just stolen a hand and was sort of shifting gears. Of course, the dude sucked out on me but I fought back and about 45 minutes later doubled up through him with the same hand, AQ. The Grinder is the mortal nuts though. That means he's greatest to all you non-players out there. Poker is like Starbucks. It has it's own crazy language. Anyway, so I made it down to the last 4 tables or so and I sort of made a donkey raise with KQo. I should have raised a little less than I did so I could fold if someone came over the top of me. Sure enough I ended up in a race against a guy with 99 for all of my chips. That sent me to the cash games for the night.
We decided to play some $1/$2 no limit until 10 and then go grab dinner. I played okay I thought, maybe made 2 questionable calls and ended up down $40. We hit the Caesar's buffet 1 hour before close. Let's just say that wasn't the greatest idea. We weren't getting a table without a reservation anywhere solid though on a Saturday night. That much is for sure.
After dinner, we split up. I was tired and I didn't want to have to think so much so I switched over to the $3/$6 limit table. Swartz played $2/$5. I was so tired, but my table was great. I was killing it. Swartz comes over at 1 a.m. and says he wants to go to the Wynn with this dude he met to play a soft no limit game there. I couldn't object to that, but I was wiped and we had to be at class at 9 again. We negotiated for a 3:30 a.m. departure. It ended up being closer to 4 but I didn't care. I booked a ridiculous win for a $3/$6 table. The worst beat of the night though was this drunk guy that sat down. He bought in for $330 or so (too much) and we were all licking our lips. The guy sat down and could barely see his cards. He thought he was playing no limit. He fell asleep. It was a mess. Unfortunately, 5 minutes later the floor guy came over and about 5 security guys. They escorted the guy out. Brutal. I wish he was just a touch less intoxicated, but it was still a great win.
It was a great day all around. I'll tell about our best day in the next post. That one could take a while and I'm tired right now. I'm showing a decent profit due to the Fischman strategy at the end of the day. This is a definite plus! Thanks Scott!
