Well, I had the honor and pleasure of being invited down to Tunica Mississippi for a invitational televised shootout featuring Chris Moneymaker last weekend. The single table shootout was held at the Grand Casino hosting by poker manager Dale Carden. I flew into Memphis early on Sunday morning for the evening tournament and was picked up at the airport by the Grand's limo and driven over to Tunica. In the couple of times that I have stayed at the Grand casino, I have always been treated wonderfully by Dale and the staff of the Grand Hotel and Casino. The shootout was held to promote the new River Poker Tour.
The players at the table were Oklahoma Johnny Hale, John Donaldson, Robert Willis, Mike Postle (yngmanN4quiki on UB), Chris Moneymaker and yours truly. The table was a fairly good mix of players. Oklahoma Johnny is a 50 year poker veteran and has played in many WSOP events and won the overall player title a number of years back. John Donaldson a conservative tight player, and we had Robert Willis who was an aggressive firing player. Chris, Mike and myself all are experienced tournament and final table players. The dynamics of the table made it an interesting match up.
The most aggressive player at the beginning of the match was Robert Willis. It seemed to me that he was used to bullying a poker game by the way he played. He was entering most pots raising and wasn't getting much action at all from any of the players. He was calling some raises and calling some draws early. It was interesting to watch him as he seemed to get a bit frustrated by the lack of action he was getting early on. Johnny Hale was to his right and was joking early about having such an aggressive player on his left. I've played a number of tournaments and single table satellites with Johnny Hale and usually he is a fairly aggressive player who isn't afraid to push his stack in preflop. But having Robert firing away on his left tamed that aggressive side of Mr Hale. Chris, Mike and myself sat back and just waited Robert out until we could trap him. After the first few rounds and after a number of trap plays Mr. Willis was the first to bust out when Moneymaker trapped him on a big hand he was holding. Mr. Willis over committed himself to a pot and Moneymaker trapped him beautifully taking Mr. Willis out first.
John Donaldson, a very nice local player was the second to walk away from the table. He was playing pretty tight and playing quality hands. His lack of tournament or final table experience got the best of him after a few hours of play. He was a cautious player who could be pushed out of a pot with aggressive plays. It took some time, but the other's at the table eventually wore him down and finally took him out.
Johnny Hale came alive a little bit after Mr. Willis busted out. Once the aggressive threat on his left ran out of chips and walked away, Johnny was able to play a bit more aggressively without worrying about the gun fighter on his left. Johnny was making cracks about Chris, Mike and myself wearing darker glasses at the table. After the remaining players laid down our good holdings a number of times to Johnny's aggressive play, we started joking back at Johnny asking him if he wanted to borrow our sunglasses to hide his eyes. Johnny woke up to aces once and his eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. I giggled about that and tried to hand him my glasses for his next hand. But after a while longer, Johnny was the next to walk away from the table. The older ambassador of tournament poker was done for the day, raising a good starter into a monster hand. Johnny is a very friendly and talkative chap who is always a pleasure to sit at a poker table with.
The table was down to 3 players now. Chris Moneymaker, Mike Postle and myself. Moneymaker had the chip lead with yours truly in second place and Mike not too far behind. Here was a classic game of players that all had very similar styles and card sense. It made for a very tough and good match. We were having a good time playing the match and made the agreement not to let the blinds go higher as we all wanted it to be more of a game of skill than a crap shoot that higher blinds would have made it. This seesaw match up went on for quite a while between the 3 of us. At one point in time I found myself in the shortest chip position and had to start making some moves and plays. My two opponents realized this and were cautious about when I was going to start to come out firing. My first big move came against Mike. He raised on the button and without even hesitating I pushed all in, holding a K7. Moneymaker laid down his Big Blind and Mike instantly called me. My guess about Mike's hand was wrong, he had a great hand holding JJ. The flop came down and my only shots of winning the hand were a gut shot straight or turning or rivering a King. The turn came down giving me an open ended straight plus the king still as an out. I now had 11 outs with 1 card to come, or else I was walking away in third place. River card, King, i was still alive and I had crippled my friend Mike. Mike being a fierce competitor refused to die. He kept on chipping away and picking his spots and managed to double a couple of times on Moneymaker. We were laughing because it seemed like every time Moneymaker made a move, Mike caught him with a dominant hand and doubled through on Moneymaker. Chris took advantage of his button and came into a pot raising, Mike without hesitation went over the top and Chris shaking his head called. Mike was all in and turned over another JJ to Moneymaker's A9. The flop was safe for Mike as was the turn but the river card broke Mike's heart. Moneymaker made his 3 outer rivering an Ace and ending Mike's day in 3rd place.
I now found myself heads up with the World Champion at more than a 2-1 chip disadvantage. Moneymaker and I have played a number of matches heads up over the past year online and have always had a very friendly, yet fierce rivalry. We became friends after the main event of the World Series last year after playing most of day 1 at the same table. What was funny is that Moneymaker will tell you that I picked on him the entire day. I did too, almost every time it was Moneymaker's blind, I came in raising into him. For those that think that Moneymaker is over-rated, I have news for you, he is a player. He is a solid and smart poker player. You need luck, everyone needs luck to win a tournament but it takes skill to maneuver through big fields over a number of days and end up on top. Moneymaker and I traded blows for about a half hour before I finally looked down and saw an Ace in my hand on my big blind. I had an Ace 8 off and when Moneymaker raised from the button, I made my move and pushed all in. Moneymaker had over raised the pot preflop and had committed himself and called my reraise. Cards went over and he held K6 off to my Ace 8 off. I had a slight advantage but that disappeared when the flop came giving Chris 2 pair and me a total blank. I turned an 8 giving me some outs but rivered a brick. My day was done, and the first time I lose to Moneymaker heads up live had to be on TV! Well, I have another shot though. I was invited for a celebrity rematch on the 9th of May in Tunica, I am hoping to get my revenge.
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