London, WSOPE, Cleansing and Annette_15
2007-09-21 15:44:01
By: Annie Duke
I just got back from London where, for some weird reason, my computer didn't work. I say weird because when I got back to the states it worked just find. Very bizarre. I have no idea what was different about there and here but I am certainly thankful to have my computer back.
So I was in London for The WSOP Europe. The WSOP ran their first poker tournament series there and it was awesome. I was really excited to spend so much time in London because all my trips in the last few years have been in and out in a few days so I haven't had time to see anything touristy there. I mean in like 5 trips in the last three years all I have managed to see is St. Paul's Cathedral. This time, though, I was there from September 3rd through the 16th and, mathematically, I rated to get knocked out of the tournaments in time to get losts of tourist time in. And I had a long list of things I wanted to see.
In the beginning things worked out to plan. Joe and I arrived a day early and used that day to see The National Gallery, Parliament and Westminster Abbey. That was an awesome day. Parliament is a take your breath away building. I mean as I approached it I could hardly breathe from the beauty of it. Astonishing. Westminster Abbey was stunning as well. But more than the architecture, the people buried and honored there is what stunned me. Seeing the burial place of Isaac Newton, Darwin, Churchill, all in the same place...not to mention the Kings and Queens, Poets Corner. I have never seen anything like it... to think of the combined influence of the people buried and honored there, the combined genius, well it is humbling.
I made it to day 2 of the 2500 pound HORSE event which put a crimp in my plans, but was knocked out by dinner time day 2 which opened up the eveing at least. For the 5K pound PLO I got knocked out late the first day so that was good for the tourist in me since it freed up an extra day for me which Joe and I used to great effect by visiting the Tower of London. The Tower was hands down the favorite place Joe and I visited. The history of London and the Tower, beginning with William the Conquerer in 1066 is a bloody one and no place exemplifies that like the Tower. I loved the place so much that Hollywood Dave gave me an antique book about the Tower for my birthday at Joe's suggestion. Go Dave and Joe! Good job on the present because that will have sentimental value for me forever. If any of you ever go to the Tower make sure to take the Warder tour. It is free with admission and well worth it.
The next day, the 10th, I started the main event, the 10K pound buy-in no limit hold'em. The first day went very well for me and I ended with over 40K in chips after taking advantage of flopping three sets and getting action with all three. Unlike the other events, where everyone started in The Empire in Leicester Square, there were 3 starting venues for the main event and I started in The Sportsman which was near Mayfair. The nice thing about the place as that is was right across the street from a great Indian restaurant my brother had taken us to the first day so Joe and I had a great dinner on dinner break. The bad thing about The Sportsman was that it was freezing cold, like shaking, hypothermia cold. I had on a hoodie and a jacket and still couldn't get warm the whole day. Thank God for the three sets or I might have gone out the door just to warm up.
The next day was a day off for me since there were two starting days but I had to do press on that day so no sightseeing, unfortunately. Damn press eating into my recreational time! :-)
I came in and played day 2 the next day and after working my stack up to nearly 100K I doubled through a guy when my KK flopped a king against his AK. that was in the last level of the night and I ended up with over 190K as one of the biggest stacks in the tournament.
Since there were two day 2's I got the next day off which Joe and I used to go see The British Museum which was well worth it. It happened to be my birthday as well and I can't think of a better present to myself than getting to see The Rosetta Stone. After the Museum, Joe and I went out to Nobu for my brithday with my brother, Hollywood Dave and Tiffany, Ty Stewart, Jeffrey Pollack, Chris Ferguson, Michael Craig and Phil Hellmuth. It was some of the best food we had in London and certainly some of the best company. It was a very nice way to celebrate my turning a billion and it was just a lovely night.
I came in the next day to play and had low expectations because of the bad table draw I started with. I had Annette_15 right on my left with a slightly bigger stack than me and to her left was an even bigger stack. Here I was 7th in chips with two bigger stacks in the tournament directly on my left in the hands of very good players. Luckily the table broke quickly and I got away from those two. We made it down to the money late in the night and quit with 32 players left. I built my stack up to nearly 300K by the end of the day and finished with about the 10th biggest stack.
I had high hopes after that coming into Saturday. I was hoping I would have to change my Sunday flight for sure. But instead it felt like I was handcuffed by my cards that day. I never even folded a hand that would have flpped anything and after the redraw at 3 tables I ended up on the TV table with all the biggest stacks in the tournament all to my left so it was a difficult table draw particularly against players where the best strategy was to trap them and I had nothing to trap them with. My second to last hand I reraised the under the gun raiser with JJ and when he moved in I was forced to fold. I was sure the player had AA or KK and after I got knocked out he was nice enough to tell me, unsolicited, that he had AA so I was correct in my read. That hand left me with under 200K which was well below par at that point. The hand that knocked me out was AJ on a AK5 3 spades board. Annette_15 had raised under the gun and I had flat called preflop. I check raised her all in on the flop and, bad for me, she had Q7 of spades and had flopped the nuts. The turn did bring an Ace, which gave me hope, but no paired board on the river and off I went 21st, annoyed and too late for anymore sightseeing. No Victoria and Albert Museum, Tate Modern, Buckingham Palace or Stonehenge. Insult to injury I tell you!
I did come across two amazing poker players I had never seen play before ( among many great players in the event). The first was a guy named Theo Jorgensen, a friend of Gus Hansen's. I played with him for much of the third day and was incredibly impressed. I have never even heard of him but he is very talented and very nice as well.
The other player who made a definite impression was Annette_15. She won the main event cashing over $2 million. Pretty nice payday for an 18 year old, no? She is the youngest player ever to win a bracelet and deservedly so. As I said during the event when asked, if she is this good now, at 18, I shudder to think how good she will be in 5 or 10 years. I don't think I have ever seen someone that young with that much talent and feel. She never loses her composure at the table and has amazing instincts. Combine that with the fact that I don't think the other players knew what to do with her and she was scary to watch. I don't think I was talented at anything when I was 18, much less world class talented. She is not even 20 and is already a terrifying player and one of the most talented I have ever seen. In 5 to 10 years holy crap! I don't ever want her on my left again because I will get outplayed. That I know for sure.
As for my cleanse, it was tough to stick with it in London because the British idea of healthy food is very different than the American one. As far as I could tell if it wasn't fried and didn't contain alcohol it is considered light in London. I managed to work out with Joe almost every day and did what I could with the mainly Indian food diet we ate. Honestly, I stuck mostly to fruit (which is much better in England than here because I think they let it ripen on the tree or vine there) and chicken tikka. Vegetables were hard to come by but I ate salad where I could. Dressing on the side is a concept they don't really get there. But between the walking everywhere, eating meal replacement bars and going to the gym every morning I came back and was pleasantly surprised to see I had gained no weight at all. So now Dave and I are starting a 9 day cleanse tomorrow to gear up for Aruba because the steak down there is so yummy that I am planning to eat red meat for the first time in over 2 months there. So cleansing before I go seems to be a bright idea.
All right, off to bed. I have to get up at 7 am cause I promised the kids strawberry/banana pancakes before school tomorrow
Permalink: http://www.ultimatebet.com/poker-blog-post/London-WSOPE-Cleansing-and-Annette_15/2083
