World Poker Tour Shooting Stars

You never think your first live poker tournament is going to be a $10,000 buy-in.

Kerri and I flew to San Jose for the $10,000 buy-in World Poker Tour Shooting Stars event at the Bay 101. Paradise Poker had sent 108 players to the event through satellites and super-satellites online so we were there to represent the company.

The format of the Shooting Stars event is a bit unique. One "star" is assigned to every table. The player that eliminates each star gets $5,000 so each star ends up with a "bounty" on their head the length of the tournament.

All of the stars were out in force, both poker and Hollywood:

• Phil Ivey
  
• Doyle Brunson
  
• Phil Hellmuth
  
• James Woods
  
• Jennifer Tilly
  
• Shannon Elizabeth
  
• Phil Laak
  
• Mike Matusow
  
• TJ Cloutier
  
• Chip Reese
  
• John Juanda
  
• Layne Flack
  
• Eric Seidel
  
• Allen Cunningham
  
• David Williams

On the second day of the tournament, two players from Paradise didn't show up. Rather than let the seats go empty...

...I got the call to play.

The "star" at my table was Gavin Smith who has won multiple World Poker Tour events and over $2,000,000 in career winnings. I played very tight for about 3 hours, pretty much only entering pots where I had AAs, KKs, QQs, or AK/AQ suited. I won a couple of hands--just enough to keep from getting blinded away. Eventually a few of us at the table started to get short-stacked and started looking for a solid hand to push on pre-flop.

I looked down and saw AAs. Since everyone at the table knew I was playing tight having watched me play for the last 3 hours, I limped. I hit the jackpot when Kristy Gazes went all-in. I called, she flipped over her AK suited, and I flipped over my AAs a bit half-heartedly (considering that it was my first live tournament and she has won tournaments and over $350,000 in lifetime winnings). No Ks or diamonds hit the board and I doubled up to $5,000.

A few hands later, I got lucky going all-in with AQ only to see the other guy flip over AK (seriously dominated) when a Q hit on the flop. So then I was back up to around $10,000 (where I started) and probably not too far off the tournament average at that point. And then I played stupid. Got too pot-committed on an A-high spade flush draw, called an all-in after the flop, only to see runner-runner red. I thanked my table and made my way for the rail, 150th or so out of 600, my first WPT event behind me.

My Favorite Moments from the Tournament

• I sat down at the table about an hour late and my seat happened to be right next to Gavin Smith. He offered me a "last longer" bonus for our watches (e.g. whomever lasts longer in the tournament gets the others' watch), but I quickly turned him down considering that my watch was a wedding gift from Kerri. Oh, it had nothing to do at all with the fact that he is 100 times better than me.
  
  
• I'm sitting at the table and someone I don't recognize walks up to the table. He looks at Gavin Smith and says, "Gavin, do you want this now?" and reaches into his pocket and pulls out $30,000. IN CASH. Poker players...
  
  
• Though I didn't make it far in the tournament of even close to cashing (Top 45), I did knock out three other players!
  
  
• Sitting in the bar having lunch at the table next to Nam Lee--who went on to win the whole tournament.