The tournament finished today with the unpublicized final, Triple Draw Limit Lo Ball. This was an add-on.

There are Super Satellites running this weekend and next weekend for a seat in the $25,000 WPT final held at Bellagio’s Five-Star World Poker Classic beginning April 2, 03. Call 702-693-7291 for more information.

But back to the real world of poker. The tournament is over but the games aren’t. It starts like this. Surround yourself with your own sense of insanity and it fits better, much easier to see and understand what happens in poker games.

Table 1. a little nightmare of high limit but actually quite entertaining and funny if you have the insanity shield installed before you enter the game as a dealer. 1 seat, Doyle. 3 seat, Ming La. 6 seat, Chau, 7 seat, Sammy. Sammy never stops talking while he’s trying to get everyone to gamble with him, explaining now and many more times, that he’s stuck $1,000,000 in this game. Is he exaggerating? Probably not.

The game? $2,000 – $4,000 Omaha 8 or Better and Pot Limit Omaha. There’s lots pancakes on the table – yeah, $25,000 chips – and stacks of $5,000 chips along with $1,000 and $500 chips. Doyle has a zillion chips surrounding his position and half filling a play over box that’s laying on its side…almost as if the play over box would keep any of his chips from escaping to the other players.

Sammy keeps up the jive talking, telling Doyle that Doyle’s winner and Doyle starts telling him that he will sell all of his chips for $200,000 as he thinks he’s stuck in the game. Which in turn causes Doyle to start counting down and then he decides he’s actually winner. This process takes two or three hands to complete and the banter is still going back and forth.

Chau is pretty quiet and Ming La isn’t saying anything.

There are two Dealer buttons on the table. One is for the Pot Limit Omaha and the other is for the limit Omaha 8 or Better. The game switches to Pot Limit Omaha and Ming La takes a walk to the next table to visit with his friend Danny D. Sammy starts the argument that Ming can’t walk, he’s got to play both games. Ming argues over his shoulder that he doesn’t play Pot Limit.
In the meantime, Chau and Sammy go to war. To add a clinker to the affair, there’s a cap on how much a player can put in the pot on each hand. $60,000. Chau and Sammy do exactly that, plus $3,500 from Doyle before the flop.

The Flop is Jack-9-little, with two spades. The Turn is a Spade when the last $13,000 each goes in… they talk briefly about a deal, Chau does not have a flush, Sammy has top set and the decision is to deal. Sammy wins.

Chau picks up his chips, prepared to leave the game, swearing and cursing about the Pot Limit Omaha and he doesn’t want to play it. Ming La comes back into the game and it’s Sammy’s button.

Doyle and Ming La tell Chau they want to play only the Omaha 8 or Better Limit game and Sammy begins to moan and lament that they are trying to shut him out because he only plays the 8 or Better so he can play the Pot Limit as that’s his game. An argument ensues for a few minutes between all of them.

The decision is made to play limit and Sammy takes a walk. Doyle tells the other two that they really want to keep Sammy in the game. What’s a fish without any eyes…f-s-h-h-h-h, silly.

Sammy comes back. He has the Button in the Pot Limit but he’s going to lose it if they switch to Omaha 8 or Better Limit because it’s Doyle’s Button. Another argument begins.

Doyle asks if Sammy has the button if he’s happy…yes! Sammy gets the button and Ming La has a fit because he posted the big blind already when the game changed. So….Doyle opts to post the Big Blind, let Sammy have the button, and let Ming La post the Small Blind. The hand is dealt and played out. Now Doyle opts to give Ming La the Button which puts Chau in the Small Blind and Sammy in the Big Blind.

Sammy has a fit and says he’s leaving. He takes a short walk. Doyle gave up his Button and posted the Big Blind to keep Sammy and Ming La happy. He knows when he’s got the best of it.

When the Button gets back to Doyle, Sammy returns and they all agree that he can be dealt in without posting. What a happy little crew!

By the end of the night it was Eli E., Chau, Sammy, Jennifer, Jack G., Howard (not Howard L.), Ming La, and they moved to Table 3 because Sammy felt Table 1 was very unlucky. The game? $2,000-$4,000 Omaha 8 or Better and David S. made the comment that any $30-$60 Omaha 8 or Better player would have the best of it in that game. Read between the lines here.

Well…on to Table 2. Yen (known to play for 3 days straight and get stuck $100,000 and then get even), Danny D., (friend of Ming La), and David from France, all three of them like to put chips in the pot, were playing $400-$800 Deuce to 7 Triple Draw and 7 Card Stud 8 or Better.
Danny D. took a walk after a few hands and David and Yen stayed and played. Yen ran over David the first 15 to 20 minutes of the game and then David did a little running over, backing up, and running over again move on Yen.

The funniest part of all of it was that during the Yen reign, when Yen raised or bet and David folded, David threw all five of his hole cards into Yen’s hand each time…not Yen’s cards but Yen’s hand. Much better than the dealer having to fade it. Yen never said a word or flinched, just stacked the chips.

The rest of the night? $60-$120 Omaha 8 or Better with a 1/3 Kill, $30-$60 Holdem, $15-$30 Holdem, $20-$40 Omaha 8 or Better with a Kill, $8-$16 Holdem, more $8-$16 Holdem, $15-$30 7 Card Stud, and on and on. TGIF.

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This post is done by Chanzes – during the time period that I took a break from posting in the Diary.