By
_johnnydrama_
A normal college student's summer is supposed to be filled with an 8-5 job back in his or her hometown. A normal college student's weekend is supposed to be spent at a local bar where penny pitchers and dollar wells are a frequent encounter. My summer consisted of the exact opposite, where 8-5 did not exist because that was our sleep time, and pennies and dollars don't exist because a bottle of Vodka runs around four hundred dollars. This summer, I traveled to Las Vegas to pursue my dream as a poker player.
When I first arrived in Vegas, I did not know what to expect. I have been to Vegas a few times before, but never for an entire month, and I really did not think my body was going to handle it. During my first few days there, I thought it would be a good idea to play some $525 satellites to tone my game before my first WSOP Event. I ended up doing very well in these satellites, chopping 3 of 4 for a bit over 6k profit. I felt very excited about my game before I entered the $2500 tournament.
On the morning of July 7th, I was probably the most nervous I have ever been before playing poker. I don't know why, because I was not worried about the money; I think I was just worried about making all my friends and family back home proud of me.
Once the tournament began, my nerves settled pretty quickly. I was able to get my hands on a good chip stack early and had a really easy table draw. I actually at one time raised twelve consecutive pots uncalled. Toward the end of the day, we were getting down towards the money, and after a long hard day of ups and downs, I grinded my way into the top 99 spots. However, I was second to last in chips with 3800 at the end of the night.
I woke up the next morning knowing that with the blinds being 600-1200, my decision was a pretty simple "ALL IN." My first hand I looked down at was AQ, where I moved all in over the top of another all in and got the BB to call also. I was up against K10 and A6 and wouldn't u know it, I held ONE TIME! My stack was not too miniature anymore. Somehow, don't ask me how, I was able to get my chip stack up to 72k at one point that day, but with blinds increasing and a couple of my steals missing, I was forced to move in with AQ of hearts under the gun and got instant called by Mike Matusow's AK in the big blind. GG ME! 29th place for about 15k wasn't a bad payday, though.
I took about a week off because my body was feeling a lot of stress, and the 5k 6 man event was really catching my eye. I wanted to have a clear head going into that event and be ready to play my "A" game. After playing another amazing day of poker, a day in which I made some of the sickest bluffs and reads of my short career, I was in the money again, ending up placing 35th for a bit over 11k. This event was also cool to me, because for a good few hours, I was able to sit next to JohnnyBax, who had been someone I wanted to meet in the poker world for quite a while.
After the week off before this event proved to be great for my game, I thought that taking more time off before the Main Event would be a good idea, so I relaxed and decided to meet some of the people I had been dying to meet from the online world. I ended up partying with some of the biggest clowns from online (JSUP, WillisNYC, Beanie, RichAndSmooth, SquintNGo, Denny Lemieux, Sandtogold, LatestLines2, etc etc). I attended such events as the Bodog Party at Tao, the UB Party at the Voodoo Lounge, and a nice friendly place called the Spearmint Rhino. Seeing some of these guys again and meeting some of them for the first time proved to be an amazing time.
Before I knew it, however, my main event day had arrived, and I was extremely excited. Even though I hate to reminisce about it, I will just simply state that it was the most frustrating THREE HOURS of poker in my life. I was cold decked with a flush over flush and trips to a boat and GG me, I wasn't even a sprinkle of light in the WSOP Main Event.
Even though I did not succeed in making my "Million Dollars," I did succeed in one thing, and that was having an amazing time while meeting a bunch of amazing people. Like I have said in previously articles, poker is a job to me, but you can not be successful in your job if you don't love it. Even though I had my ups and downs in the WSOP, I will never forget the times I had. I mean, how many of my friends at home can say that they witnessed WillisNYC dancing on stage at TAO with supermodels, and how many of them got to see Jsup pound more beers in one day than I could drink in a week? How many people witnessed Denny Lemieux falling in love with not one, not two, but three strippers in the same trip!?! My answer would be not many.
So as I go back to my small college town, the memory of my two WSOP cashes will be in my head, but I will never forget about the friends and people I was able to meet. I hope all of you had just as great of a time at the WSOP as I did, and if I didn't catch you this time, hopefully I will catch up with you next year! I would also like to give a shout out to a few others, including all of the Bodog representatives (especially Bob, who put me into my first WSOP event) and also all the PocketFives staff, especially Adam, who is one of the nicest guys you will ever come across. Thanks again, and I hope to see everyone next year.