Crushing a Dreamcrusher

Only three more weeks until Dan and I make the trek to Vegas for the World Series of Poker. I’m so excited! I’ve been playing a lot more poker lately as I’m trying to build the last of my Vegas bankroll. I’ve also been talking with friends who have recently returned from Las Vegas, and they have had some pretty good stories about things that happened to them while out there, so I thought I’d share a couple here.

My friend Adam was heading out to Las Vegas for an extended weekend, leaving on a Saturday and returning on Tuesday. He had planned to get in to a poker tournament that had a buy in ranging from $300-$500. After his arrival on Saturday, he had stayed up all night and then found himself at Caesar’s when he decided to get in to a noon tournament that had a $550 buy-in. What he didn’t realize until after he was registered was that this was a World Series of Poker Circuit Event, and that the tournament would run over two days with Day One wrapping up approximately 14 hours from the start time. I certainly don’t think he would have registered for this considering his sleep situation if he had realized how long the tournament would last.

Upon taking his seat, he found himself at a table with Randy “Dreamcrusher” Jensen. If you are unaware of who he is, he is a pro that has been taped during the WSOP Main Event play reading a book on Day One. His reason for this is that he believes that he always screws up a hand during Day One, and that if he reads his book instead of playing his hands he’ll avoid this screw up. He’s also made a couple of WPT final tables, too. Well, very early in the tournament, Jensen and another player get involved with some action preflop and the flop comes: A-2-x. The unknown player gets all his chips in with Jensen at that point and they turn over hands. Jensen is holding 2-2 for a set of 2s, and the other player has A-K for top pair. The turn and river show up: K-K, giving the unknown player the pot and crippling Jensen. It’s also at this point that Jensen starts berating the player for his play. Based off the way the post-flop action happened, Jensen had kind of made it obvious that he could be a pair of anything. I think it’s pretty funny since he was initially happy to see the hand he was up against. After all, he was better than 98% to win when the chips all got in the middle, and you can’t ask for too much better than that.

As play continued, Jensen continued his ridiculing, and was able to accumulate some chips. He then got involved with my friend Adam and a couple other players in a pot. Adam was holding K-J when the flop hit the board: A-Q-T. Well, that would give Adam the nuts. Adam led out with a small bet and got a couple callers. The board didn’t pair on the turn and the straight was still the nuts when Jensen decided to get all his chips in the middle. Adam insta-calls, and the “Dreamcrusher” was given a rude awakening with his A-T and a path to the rail when his hand didn’t improve. Jensen questioned why Adam would lead out instead of trapping with a bet after that flop, but considering that Adam got Jensen to put all his chips in to the middle I think the answer was made pretty clear to probably everyone but Jensen.

Shortly after that Adam got involved in another pot holding Ks-Js. Some of the effects of his lack of sleep and the hangover were setting in as well. After the flop arrived:

Qs-Tx-8s

his opponent moved all in. Adam went in to the think tank to think about his straight draw, flush draw, and overcard. Now, you can probably imagine what not having any sleep for the last 28 hours and being hung over can do to you while trying to think about something like this. Eventually, after some considerable time had passed he announces, “I’ve lost track of how many outs I have. I have to call.” I crack up just picturing how that came out! As it turned out his opponent had K9, and was even behind in the hand, so Adam didn’t need to improve. Adam won that hand, and found himself with a healthy stack of chips when another pro arrived at his table. This time it was Men “the Master” Nguyen. Men is a multiple Poker Player of the Year champion. You probably don’t want to see him at your table, and here he gets the seat to Adam’s immediate left. That is also probably a spot you don’t want him either because you’ll be betting in to him.

Adam correctly deduced that Men would try to steal from him a lot, and Adam was able to push Men around a little bit with some aggressive action with some trash hands. He even had Men muttering to himself after a blind v. blind battle where Adam had raised, gotten reraised, and then reraised back himself with a hand that let’s just say was definitely not in the “premium” category.

I’m sorry to report that Adam didn’t make it to the money in this event, but it would be hard to have not lost on the hand that Adam lost. Adam was dealt pocket Jacks, and after a J-8-x flop (Jack high, three suits), his opponent moved all in. Adam called, and his opponent tabled Ad-Kd. Well the board had a diamond, and the turn and river were also diamonds to give his opponent a flush. The only other way his opponent could have won would have been if the turn and river were Queen-Ten for the straight. That’s just an ugly way to get booted from a tournament.

I hope that I don’t find myself on that end of a bad beat when I’m playing at the World Series of Poker three weeks from now!