Phil is Unlucky — Not!

Recently in Rincon, California (near San Diego), at Harrah’s World Series of Poker Tournament Circuit, I lost with Q-Q to Barry Shulman’s J♣10♣. Barry popped it up and I just called from the big blind with my Q-Q. After a flop of 10-5-2, I checked, Barry bet, and I smoothcalled one more time. When a 3 came off on the turn, I bet out $800, and Barry made it $2,000 to go.

I smooth-called again, but told myself to bet out $3,000 if a deuce, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, queen, or king hit on the river. The last card was a jack and I checked. Barry bet $3,000, and I called instantly.

He showed me his J-10, and I headed off quickly for the sunshine in the parking lot to take a break.

After five minutes of steaming and being quite upset, a car with an older couple in it pulled over, and they said,“Phil, we love you! We love to watch you play; you’re our favorite.” Then, the very next car pulled over with another couple in it. One of them said, “Phil, I bought your DVD, and it has saved me a ton of money; thank you very much. We love to watch you play; you’re not out yet, I hope.”

This perked me up quite a bit, and I literally ran —more like floated — back to the tournament area feeling all pumped up! The next thing I knew, I got aces, kings, queens, and A-K, and was off and running to $37,000 in chips. Talk about a mood swing and a chip swing, positive energy was flying around me everywhere, and I was singing songs!

An hour later, I was mumbling a bit to myself about the fact that Scotty Nguyen had been holding over me. The flop came down J-9-2. I put Scotty all in with my set of deuces and he showed me a set of nines. Uh … OK, nice hand, Scotty. https://harlemshambles.com/

A few hands later, I raised it to $1,050 to go with Q-Q from under the gun, and the big blind made it $5,000 more to go. He hadn’t played very many hands to that point, but something told me he didn’t have pocket aces or pocket kings. Then, he announced that he would call his last $10,000 if I moved him all in.

Finally, a clock was called, as I was taking so much time on the hand. Right before they started counting down the final 10 seconds, I told myself, “Go with your read, but just call the $5,000 raise in case he has A-K, which seems likely.”

So, I called the $5,000 bet and my opponent said, “I bet my last $10,000 in the dark (before seeing the flop).”  Now, I knew the best he could have was A-K, and that I would call if no ace or king hit the board. The flop came down A-10-3, and I reluctantly folded, whereupon my opponent checked both of his cards and then showed me an ace. But he had to fish around for the ace, so I knew it wasn’t A-A. Was it A-K, or not? Did I just get beat by A-Q or A-J? How bad was the beat? What in the heck was going on here?

After further review, my opponent admitted that he had never stacked off in the dark in his life. Uh, OK; why do people do these weird things against me? There must be some intimidation factor.

We headed off to the dinner break. I still had more than $20,000 in chips, and a good feeling about this event. I was playing about as well asI can, and believed there was no way that anyone was going to bust me.

The first hand after the dinner break, the blinds were still only $200-$400. Scotty was in the big blind, but he was off drinking a Michelob, so they killed his hand.

https://pokerterpercaya.photo.blog/2021/09/28/ept-final-in-monte-carlo/