<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=25 width="100%" bgColor=#ffffff border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>WSOP Circuit and some 4000-8000
By Daniel Negreanu - Monday, February 28th, 2005
CARDPLAYER MAGAZINE
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top bgColor=#ffffff><TABLE height=700 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=10 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=cpblack2 vAlign=top>I didn't have it. I drove into San Diego the night before the tournament and was totally exhausted. Celebrating over at the Spider Club the night before took a toll on me and I was way behind on sleep.
So, as soon as I got to my room I hit the sack. Then at 5:00am I hear, beep, beep, beep. You gotta be kidding me? They left the alarm set for 5:00am? In a daze, I smacked some buttons hoping to turn it off.
Two minutes later, beep, beep, beep. I smack some more, but once again two minutes later it went off. This happened another five times or so before I smashed every button in sight and finally murdered the alarm clock.
The interruption did the damage though because I woke up as groggy as can be. I headed down to the tournament and wouldn't you know it: three of the other players had the same thing happen to them!
You wanna sabotage your opponent? Wake him up in the middle of the night to a lovely beeping sound. Hmm... what an idea! I could hire someone to crank call all of my opponents next time I'm at a final table. Ok, ok, ok so I wouldn't do that, but I do protect myself. There is no "Daniel Negreanu" checked in at any hotels I stay at, no sir. There might be a Jazzy Jeff, Dougie Fresh, or an Ahmed Shazbar but you won't find a Daniel Negreanu registered.
So by 2:30pm I was out. I can't say for sure that it was because of sleep deprivation but man was I tired. I hit the sack and woke up at around 6:30pm to do an interview for ESPN.
After that I had to figure out what in the world I was going to do now? Drive to San Jose? No thanks, that's like 8 hours. Maybe drive back to LA or Vegas? I had no idea.
So I decided to watch a movie, Mr.3000. For a predictable sports movie I must say that I really liked it. I'm a Bernie Mac fan, but there was something more touching about the story that really hit home on a personal level.
Art Ross (played by Mac) is a great hitter but his ego gets the best of him and nobody likes him. Once he gets his 3000th hit that would ensure a Hall of Fame birth he quits on his team. He was totally selfish, and totally obsessed with his own numbers and memorabilia.
Well, nine years later at the age of 47 he finds out that there was an error in calculating his hit total and he only has 2,997 hits! This destroys him, and he goes back to baseball in the hopes of getting three more hits.
What happens after that I'll leave for you all. There was one scene in there with Angela Basset that really hit home with me though. Made me think for a minute. Made me question what I want in life and what I might be giving up because of it. Anyway, it was a fun movie.
***************************************************************
After the movie it was time to debate what to do. Before I did that i decided to check and see if the big game was going. Sure enough, Chau was just quitting and Chip Reese, Gus Hansen, and Phil Ivey were playing the same old 4000-8000 mixed game.
Of course they were playing with $1 chips. Why $1 chips? Well for one, none of us would ever bring money like that on the road, and secondly everyone in the game was trustworthy.
So a rack of $1 chips represented $100,000. I sat in the game and lost a capped pot to Gus right off the bat. In hindsight I could have won that pot but played the hand properly as far as I'm concerned:
The game was 2-7 single draw no limit with 1000-2000 blinds and 1000 ante. I was on the button with 2-4-5-8-J and made it 10,000 to go. Gus "boomed" it, capping the bet at 100,000. I called the bet hoping that Gus was drawing.
Gus stayed pat and now I had to decide if my J-8 was good. Since I had such a smooth draw though I just had to break it. I caught a Q instead of the J and lost to Gus' J-10-7-4-3. Yikes.
From there though things really started to go well for me. I went on a nice rush making a few wheels along the way and ended up winning $598,000 in about 5 hours which also marks my biggest win in a cash game to date.
It also helps wipe out back to back losses of 250,000 and 190,000 that I'd suffered earlier in LA leaving me ahead about $150,000 after three plays and a total of about 21 hours.
My plan from here is still up in the air. The boys want to play again today so I may join them. Otherwise I’ll be driving, the only problem is I still have no idea where I’ll be driving to?
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
By Daniel Negreanu - Monday, February 28th, 2005
CARDPLAYER MAGAZINE
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top bgColor=#ffffff><TABLE height=700 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=10 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=cpblack2 vAlign=top>I didn't have it. I drove into San Diego the night before the tournament and was totally exhausted. Celebrating over at the Spider Club the night before took a toll on me and I was way behind on sleep.
So, as soon as I got to my room I hit the sack. Then at 5:00am I hear, beep, beep, beep. You gotta be kidding me? They left the alarm set for 5:00am? In a daze, I smacked some buttons hoping to turn it off.
Two minutes later, beep, beep, beep. I smack some more, but once again two minutes later it went off. This happened another five times or so before I smashed every button in sight and finally murdered the alarm clock.
The interruption did the damage though because I woke up as groggy as can be. I headed down to the tournament and wouldn't you know it: three of the other players had the same thing happen to them!
You wanna sabotage your opponent? Wake him up in the middle of the night to a lovely beeping sound. Hmm... what an idea! I could hire someone to crank call all of my opponents next time I'm at a final table. Ok, ok, ok so I wouldn't do that, but I do protect myself. There is no "Daniel Negreanu" checked in at any hotels I stay at, no sir. There might be a Jazzy Jeff, Dougie Fresh, or an Ahmed Shazbar but you won't find a Daniel Negreanu registered.
So by 2:30pm I was out. I can't say for sure that it was because of sleep deprivation but man was I tired. I hit the sack and woke up at around 6:30pm to do an interview for ESPN.
After that I had to figure out what in the world I was going to do now? Drive to San Jose? No thanks, that's like 8 hours. Maybe drive back to LA or Vegas? I had no idea.
So I decided to watch a movie, Mr.3000. For a predictable sports movie I must say that I really liked it. I'm a Bernie Mac fan, but there was something more touching about the story that really hit home on a personal level.
Art Ross (played by Mac) is a great hitter but his ego gets the best of him and nobody likes him. Once he gets his 3000th hit that would ensure a Hall of Fame birth he quits on his team. He was totally selfish, and totally obsessed with his own numbers and memorabilia.
Well, nine years later at the age of 47 he finds out that there was an error in calculating his hit total and he only has 2,997 hits! This destroys him, and he goes back to baseball in the hopes of getting three more hits.
What happens after that I'll leave for you all. There was one scene in there with Angela Basset that really hit home with me though. Made me think for a minute. Made me question what I want in life and what I might be giving up because of it. Anyway, it was a fun movie.
***************************************************************
After the movie it was time to debate what to do. Before I did that i decided to check and see if the big game was going. Sure enough, Chau was just quitting and Chip Reese, Gus Hansen, and Phil Ivey were playing the same old 4000-8000 mixed game.
Of course they were playing with $1 chips. Why $1 chips? Well for one, none of us would ever bring money like that on the road, and secondly everyone in the game was trustworthy.
So a rack of $1 chips represented $100,000. I sat in the game and lost a capped pot to Gus right off the bat. In hindsight I could have won that pot but played the hand properly as far as I'm concerned:
The game was 2-7 single draw no limit with 1000-2000 blinds and 1000 ante. I was on the button with 2-4-5-8-J and made it 10,000 to go. Gus "boomed" it, capping the bet at 100,000. I called the bet hoping that Gus was drawing.
Gus stayed pat and now I had to decide if my J-8 was good. Since I had such a smooth draw though I just had to break it. I caught a Q instead of the J and lost to Gus' J-10-7-4-3. Yikes.
From there though things really started to go well for me. I went on a nice rush making a few wheels along the way and ended up winning $598,000 in about 5 hours which also marks my biggest win in a cash game to date.
It also helps wipe out back to back losses of 250,000 and 190,000 that I'd suffered earlier in LA leaving me ahead about $150,000 after three plays and a total of about 21 hours.
My plan from here is still up in the air. The boys want to play again today so I may join them. Otherwise I’ll be driving, the only problem is I still have no idea where I’ll be driving to?
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
