I went to the casino again this evening for a few hours and made a few hundred. Like I said, I don’t think the competition is very good. Less than five hours of “work” at the poker room this weekend, playing low stakes, and I have already made more than my weekly salary. My new plan is to go once a week, on Sundays. That way, I don’t play too much but I still get my fix.
Also, for those of you who want to know the painstaking details of my professional poker experience, it can be found below:
“Kristy Gazes”
By Stephen A. Murphy
Originally published at Mansion.com
“Kristy Gazes.” I muttered. “Kristy Gazes.” Spoken to no one, out into the world. They almost sounded like curse words. “Kristy Gazes.”
“Steve, snap out of it,” my girlfriend Megan said. I guess hearing “Kristy Gazes” 25 times an hour gets pretty old. I wouldn’t know. I was still reliving the moment. Over and over again.
It happened two hours into the Aussie Millions Main Event. A college kid with less than $3,000 in his bank account, I won a $33 satellite to one of the biggest poker tournaments in the world. The prize package was worth $14,000, but you weren’t allowed to exchange it for cash. You had to play.
So there I was, in Melbourne, Australia. I told my friends and family that I was “just happy to be there” and that I was “treating it like a vacation.” But really, my daydreaming was in overload. I wanted to win. Me and the more than 700 others who put up over $10,000 just to play. The winner would receive $1.5 million – cold, hard, cash.
I tried to calm my nerves on the morning of the tournament, but I was a little nauseous. I didn’t want to eat anything, but I forced myself to munch down a few soggy fries. I could potentially be playing nine straight hours without a dinner break, and I couldn’t let my stomach influence me.
If I played well, my entire life could change. I doused some more salt onto the fries. I knew I was good enough to win, but poker can be tricky. Some days, you play your best. Other days, you just don’t quite have it. I wondered if I would have my “A” game today.
That answer would come quickly. As the tournament started, I noticed I had to sit next to a poker pro, the noted and respected Kristy Gazes. Photographers and reporters were surrounding her. Gazes was a fairly attractive, fairly young female. However, in the poker world, where most of the players were middle-aged men with beer bellies, she looked like a beauty queen and had a posse around her to prove it. As people crowded around her, asking for autographs, I felt like I was getting in the way. But I was ready. My original plan was to avoid Gazes where I could, and take advantage of the fellow amateurs at the table.
But I didn’t avoid her. I actually got into three sizable pots with her early, winning two out of three—including one when she tried to bluff me on the flop, turn, and river when I had three kings (two in my hand), making the nuts (the best possible hand with the available cards). After checking and calling her big bets on the flop and turn, I checked on the river to see her bet more than the size of pot before re-raising and going over the top of her. She looked at me, said, “Nice play, kid,” and threw her cards away.
I was playing well and getting some good hands. I knocked out a player who bet all in just with top pair when I had an over pair. I correctly read a different player for a three of a kind, and I bet three times the pot on the river with my full house to see him call and lose.
Pretty soon, my chip stack had doubled. And then it just kept getting bigger. I had about $45,000 in chips while the tournament average was still just $20,500. Without even realizing it, I had become the chip leader of the entire tournament. I was winning a tournament that made the top two finishers millionaires. But Kristy Gazes was doing well too, gathering about $42,000 in chips. We had each eliminated a player, and we were dominating our table. Pretty soon all the photographers and cameramen were coming to our table, snapping pictures and taping the action.
And then came the ‘big hand.’
The blinds were $100-$200. Kristy raised three times the blind from early position to $600. I looked at my hand to see both red aces – the best starting hand in Texas Hold ‘Em. I decided not to slow play them (and thereby disguise my hand) because there were too many people behind us who could play for value and catch a card if they called with a pocket pair. So I raised it to $2,000. The rest of the table folded, and the action went back to Kristy. She waited about 15 seconds, then raised it to $8,000 total.
Little did she know that I had her right where I wanted her. The cameras were going wild at this point, clicking away. I decided to take my time with this decision. I didn’t want to seem too eager and show off that I had aces, so I wrinkled my face, and pretended to agonize over the decision.
I knew she had a big hand, at worst pocket queens, but more likely kings or even the last two aces in the deck. I could’ve just called, but I really didn’t want her to hit a three of a kind on the flop, so I raised another $10,000 to $18,000 total. I stared at the table, trying not to give anything away. I obviously wanted her to call or move all-in, but I would gladly take this very sizable pot from her right now if she folded.
She asked for time. No one at the table was talking, but it was far from silent. The murmurs from the audience, and the incessant clicking of cameras seemed deafening. Eventually, she made her decision. “All in.”
I immediately called and flipped over the aces. “That’s what I was afraid of,” she said, as she turned over the two black kings in the deck.
At this point, it was announced over the intercom that poker pro Kristy Gazes was all in and that our new chip leader would have an enormous $90,000 in chips less than two hours into the tournament — 4.5 times the average stack.
The flop came ace of clubs, seven of hearts, two of clubs. It should have killed all of the tension, giving me a three of a kind. Kristy would need two straight miracle cards to let her win the hand. I was more than a 9:1 favorite at this point.
Kristy started talking to a reporter, saying, “It’s ok. I lost my chips to a good player.” Then the turn came – ten of clubs. Three clubs were on board; she had one in her hand. If the river came out clubs without pairing the board, her flush would beat my three of a kind.
Another club came on the river. Her runner-runner flush with the king was enough to beat my three aces. She apologized profusely, and I accepted the defeat in a dignified fashion.
A few hands later, with just $2,000 in chips and the 100-200 blinds about to hit me, I went all in with Ace-Ten. A player with Queen-Jack called me and caught a Jack to knock me out.
The bad beat I had against Kristy Gazes quickly made its way around the casino. I suppose the good part about it is that I didn’t have to buy a drink for the rest of my time in Australia. Everyone felt so bad that they would buy them for me. Gazes took my chips and cruised to the Final Table before getting eliminating, earning over $200,000 for her efforts.
Who knows if I’ll ever get another opportunity to play in one of these big tournaments? I know I’m good enough to win, but it is poker, meaning there is luck involved. I hope, that one day, I’ll get one more chance.
