I was at the World Poker Tour at the Bellagio in December, and I wanted to pass along a couple of stories.

When I first arrived I entered a satellite for the next day's multi-table tournament. This satellite cost $235 for an entry into the $2,000 tournament. When I sat down at the table, someone commented "There are three world class players at this table." I don't think they meant me. I am a pretty well known tournament player at Ultimate Bet, and I was even wearing my UB hat hoping Annie Duke would walk up and give me $100 <READMORE>. But it is very unlikely the man making the comment knew who I was. (And even more unlikely that he would refer to me as a "World Class Player")

Looking around i saw Barry Schulman across the table from me. Barry is the owner of Card Player Magazine, and I have seen him on TV a number of times. Sitting on my left was Hon Le "The Kamikaze Kid" I have also seen him on lots on TV - and coincidentally, he was in front of me in line when I checked into the hotel. I never figured out who the third player was, and didn't think it was appropriate to ask.

The satellite started out great. I was dealt AK on the first hand and won 1,000 chips (we each started with 2,000 chips). On the 4th hand I was dealt AA, and won 2,000 more chips. (The other poor bloke was dealt KK, and lost all of his chips to my "Rockets"). I was so excited my heart wouldn't stop beating and I had to get up from the table to walk around a bit and settle down. Another sign of a "world class player" is that they would probably take two great hands, and more than doubling up by the 4th hand in stride. But for me the excitement was just too much.

Things quieted down for a while, and then a series of 4 interesting hands came up. On the first I was dealt KK (a great hand!) and I raised but nobody called - so I only won the blinds. On the next hand, Hon Le was dealt KK and had the same result. (He raised and no one called. He showed his hand so we knew he had pocket Kings.).

On the very next hand, I was dealt another big pair - AA this time - "Pocket Rockets" - I raised pre-flop and Hon Le called. On the flop, I bet half the pot but Hon Le folded. Actually this was interesting - because just as I was putting out my bet I noticed out of the side of my eye that Hon Le was getting ready to go "all in' (bet all his chips). If I had noticed a little sooner, I could have checked (not bet) and trapped him into losing all his chips. As it was, he folded to my bet - but I still won 1,000 chips from him. This time I showed my hand. Not necessarily a good idea, but its hard not to share with Hon Le after he was so friendly to share his cards on the previous hand.

Then, on the very next hand, I got AA again!!! (This happens once every 40,000 hands - AA twice in a row). I bet and Hon Le called. Of course, he would never expect that I had pocket A's twice in a row. And apparently I managed to suppress my excitement sufficiently so he did not immediately "read" that I had a great hand. This time he did go all in, and I won the pot and busted Hon Le out of the satellite!!!! So even if I never win a big tournament at least I have had the fun of beating Hon Le!!!

I now had half of he chips (There are 20,000 and I had 10,000). But, alas, as sometimes happens, the man with half the chips doesn't always win. Of course I wish I had this many good hands at the tournament the next day (AK, AA, KK, AA and AA in the first 30 hands or so). I did get down to the final two in a later satellite, and the other player and I made a deal and split the prize. (You are allowed to make deals - rather than play the other person heads up and either win or lose).

P.S. The next night I was playing at the Mirage $130 re-buy tournament and had pocket A's twice in a row again to move from 11th of 11 players to 9th and to make the final table of 9. I came in 5th!

Athenian </READMORE>