Pug_Fugly 0 Posted December 16, 2005 Share Posted December 16, 2005 I flew into Vegas Thursday morning for the Global Poker Challenge tournament. I had assumed that it would be mostly “internet players” like me who had won satellite seats into the event. Not so, there were about 10 players like me and 90+ pros!Among the players I recognized:Daniel NegraneauPhil IveyPhil GordonMike MatusowLee WatkinsonHarry DemetriouJohn JuandaEric SeidelPaul DardenJennifer HarmanKristy GazesErick LindgrenClonie GowenGrinder MizrachiEvelyn NgGavin SmithTJ CloutierHuck SeedPaul PhillipsLayne FlackPerry FriedmanRichard BrodieAndy BlochScott Fischman (the first player to win a table)Tony GCarlos MortensonRam VaswaniFreddie DeebAllen CunninghamDavid GreyAmir VadehiChris “Jesus” FergusonGen WatanabeDan AlspachPaul WolfeThere were many others that I am forgetting or didn’t recognize by name.My Table:Seat 1: Dan AlspachSeat 2 was empty.Seat 3: Lee WatkinsonSeat 4: Gen WatanabeSeat 5: MeSeat 6: Harry DemetriouSeat 7: Mike MatusowSeat 8: Another guy who played his way in (I think)We started with 10,000 chips each and needed to win the table to move on to the semi-final (and win any money). Blinds started at 100-200 and advanced every 30 minutes.I got off to a slow start, playing only a couple hands in the first few orbits and folding them after I missed the flop. Gen Watanabe seemed to be the most aggressive player at the table. He made a huge raise against Dan Alspach’s bet of 2000. Dan laid it down and Gen had an early chip lead. A few hands later I found myself with pocket tens on the button. Gen open raised the pot to 600 from the cutoff and I raised to 2000. He quickly re-raised me to 6000, which would have made me pot committed for all my chips if I called. I folded reluctantly and then laid low for a while. Since I had 7000 chips I was going to find myself put to a test if any of initial raises of 600 got re-raised.The next hand I got involved in I called Dan Alspach’s open raise of 600 with A-10 in my hand and hit 2 pair on the flop. Dan bet, I raised, he pushed. He was the only guy at the table that I had covered at this point and all of his chips ended up in my stack, leaving us with 6 players at the table. Matusow took down a 30K pot with AA vs. Gen Watanabe’s KK. This crippled Gen and he didn’t last much longer. The guy in seat 8 kept pushing all-in every time Mike Matusow open raised a pot. Not sure how that strategy is supposed to work. He got away with it a few times but eventually Harry doubled through him and then Lee Watkinson took him out. Lee also took out Harry on a river suckout with AQ vs QQ and suddenly we were 3 handed. I had about 14K at this point and Lee & Mike had around 28K each. Many other players who had been eliminated were hanging around the table watching. I took a moment to enjoy it since my odds of sticking around much longer weren’t good. Surprisingly, three handed play went on for quite a while. Lee & Mike didn’t get mixed up in any big pots with each other and I was trying to take enough blinds to stay afloat.I was down to 10K after posting a 1K big blind with 66 in my hand. Mike opened for 3500 and Lee pushed all in. I decided this was a good place to take a stand because I expect Mike would probably fold so I was calling 10K for a 15.5K already in the pot. Lee had 77 (doh!) but I flopped a set and then turned a boat to survive his flush draw. This is probably my only hand they’ll show in TV while the commentators call me a lucky donkey.This pot put me pretty close to even with Mike and a bit ahead of Lee, but the chips continued to steadily flow out of my stack and into theirs as the button circulated.A bit later Mike open raised a pot and I flat called from the big blind with AQ. The flop came A-Q-J and I doubled up over Mike’s A-J. Another ace hit the river for good measure. Too bad there aren’t bad beat jackpots in tournaments.Mike won a decent pot with KQ vs Lee’s AJ and Lee stack was getting low. A couple hands later he pushed allin for about 10K and I called from the blind with A-10. He had A-9 and to make matters worse for him I flopped a 10. Lee was out and I was heads up with Mike Matusow. We played heads up for about 5 minute before we reached the break with me leading with about 45K vs. his 25K. My goal at that point was to be aggressive and force a coin flip for all of his chips before he had the time to outplay me. We fought over card for a bit while a pretty good sized crowd looked on. It seemed like we both went card and folded out small blinds many time. I wanted to be aggressive but I wasn’t going to play with crap card. Two times I raised with Ace-bad kicker and he re-raised. I laid those hand down and out stacks were getting pretty close in size. I raised another pot to 4500 with K-Q and he pushed all-in. At this point I still had him covered but if I folded he would be ahead and I would have a real uphill battle. I made the call and was a 40/60 underdog vs. his A-10 to win the hand (and the table). I didn’t get lucky and Mike took a huge chip lead. It got a bit interesting after I doubled up twice and made my way back to 19K in chips but he closed me out with KK vs. my A-9 of diamonds. Good times.Everyone I met was very cool and friendly, especially Harry, Mike & Lee. Link to post Share on other sites
Suited_Up 2 Posted December 16, 2005 Share Posted December 16, 2005 Damn. Nice job. Link to post Share on other sites
turd ferguson 1 Posted December 16, 2005 Share Posted December 16, 2005 Cool story. Thanks for sharing. What sattelite did you play to win your way in? Link to post Share on other sites
Pug_Fugly 0 Posted December 16, 2005 Author Share Posted December 16, 2005 It was a $100 buy in tourney on Full Tilt a couple weeks ago. Link to post Share on other sites
Frigley 0 Posted December 16, 2005 Share Posted December 16, 2005 wow must of been a great experience what are the prizes for that tournament? Link to post Share on other sites
Pug_Fugly 0 Posted December 16, 2005 Author Share Posted December 16, 2005 The prize pool was just over $500K. 9th-16th made 5K each. I'm not sure how the rest was distributed among the top 8. I made it a point not to look at those details before/while I was playing Link to post Share on other sites
ShakeZuma 585 Posted December 16, 2005 Share Posted December 16, 2005 good story, Im jealous Link to post Share on other sites
Pug_Fugly 0 Posted February 20, 2006 Author Share Posted February 20, 2006 This tourney is going to be on Fox Sports starting tonight as part of the Best Damn Sports Show. 9pm in Los Angeles. Link to post Share on other sites
Mercury69 3 Posted February 20, 2006 Share Posted February 20, 2006 Very nice job! Link to post Share on other sites
finztotheleft 0 Posted February 21, 2006 Share Posted February 21, 2006 I'm watching it right now. Stupid announcer is mispronouncing everyone's names. What were you wearing ? Link to post Share on other sites
finztotheleft 0 Posted February 21, 2006 Share Posted February 21, 2006 Did you wear a black short sleeve polo? Link to post Share on other sites
grgimpy 0 Posted February 21, 2006 Share Posted February 21, 2006 I'm watching it right now. Stupid announcer is mispronouncing everyone's names. What were you wearing ?Not only does the announcer have no idea who these players are, but the camera work is pretty bad. I stumbled onto this tonight and found it to be pretty much the worst poker show I've ever seen. All that is shown is all-ins, and half the time I don't even know what both players' cards are. This show could have been done a lot better. Link to post Share on other sites
Pug_Fugly 0 Posted February 21, 2006 Author Share Posted February 21, 2006 Did you wear a black short sleeve polo?Yep that's me.I agree that this is horrible television but I'm stoked that they have shown so much of the early action because I've had a lot of screen time. At the point where the show ended last night I'm still alive and 3 handed with Lee Watkinson and Mike Matusow. I don't know if they'll show much more of our table though since we are all Americans so there are no "points" to be won. Link to post Share on other sites
Pug_Fugly 0 Posted February 23, 2006 Author Share Posted February 23, 2006 I got a lot of screen time last night and I don't feel too bad about they way they mispronounced my name after hear how badly they butchered Negreanu (Neg-ree-an-oo). How did they find a poker announcer that didn't know any of the top players? Link to post Share on other sites
ben_wallace 0 Posted February 23, 2006 Share Posted February 23, 2006 It sounds like in heads up Matusow had a tell on you. Everytime you haev a decent hand but nothing special like Ace-rag he re-raises you heavy. I probably won't get the broadcast but if it was me in that spot I'd be hoping to get to see more of the heads up and try and see if you have a tell Link to post Share on other sites
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