The side game action during the World Series of Poker can be better than the tournaments. Nick Wealthall sits down for some juicy cash games
The World Series of Poker is the greatest festival of tournament poker on the planet. But it’s also worth remembering that Vegas during the WSOP is also one of the best festivals of cash game poker on the planet. Years ago the side games were more important than the tournaments, as the best players in the world would compete with wealthy amateurs for dizzying stakes.
This year saw something of a renaissance of the big side games as Brian Townsend (online player sbrugby) joined players like Sam Farha, Mirage CEO Bobby Baldwin and Patrik Antonius to play a huge side game in Bobby’s Room at the Bellagio. They played pot-limit Omaha and no-limit Hold’em with $1,000/$2,000 blinds and often with a $4,000 straddle. The players in the game were winning or losing well over a million dollars in a day.
On arriving in Vegas this trip my sights were set a little lower but I knew the cash games at the WSOP represented a great chance to make some proper money. One of the best pieces of advice I can give if you go to Vegas is not to play poker for at least 48 hours. You’re tired, jet-lagged and it’s pretty impossible to play your ‘A’ game.
Of course, I followed this advice to the letter… if you change all the letters. I’d been in Sin City for less than 24 hours when, slightly fuelled by complimentary beverages, I was shuffling through the Palms Hotel and Casino. I decided to check out the poker room, ‘just to see what it was like’.
Well, much to my surprise it contained people playing poker for money. As I stood and watched, however, I realised it was a good game; actually it was a ‘gooood game’. It was wild, with players throwing their chips in as if poker was going to be banned in the morning. As I watched from the rail a seat became open. My mind was awash with conflict – this was a great money-making opportunity – the kind of game you can spend days looking for. On the other hand I was tired, jet-lagged, I’d had a couple of liveners and playing tonight was not the plan. In the end my inner voice told me to stop messing about and take the seat.
Decision time
For the next four hours I sat with the drunks and loons and waited to make a big score. It was $2/$5 no-limit Hold’em but there was several thousand on the table and the kind of game where you could make enough to pay for your trip if the cards fell right.
I’d played pretty quietly for the first hour taking a few smallish pots before a hand arrived that would spark a bit of first night fun. In the big blind I was dealt Ah-Ac The action limped around to me and I put in a biggish raise that got one caller – a player who’d been playing pretty loose, so it was no surprise. The flop came 3d-4d-5h I led out for a just-under-the-pot- sized bet and he moved all-in on me. This was a massive over-the-pot-sized bet. There was about $100 in the pot and he’d moved me in for the remaining $500 in front of me. This was a horrible spot for me as he could be making a big move with a big draw or sitting on a made hand he thinks he’ll get paid on by making this bet. Either way I had a decision.
As I was thinking he flipped over the 5d and started chatting it up. Though he’d been playing loosely he hadn’t made this big move before. He also seemed confident and relaxed and with so many hands that could have me in trouble or crushed I pretty quickly decided I’d fold and look for a better spot. However, I was enjoying the banter and quizzing him ”My mind was awash with conflict – this was a great money-making opportunity” about his hand so I didn’t fold immediately.
After no more than a couple of minutes a guy with a tiny manicured moustache, who looked like he tucked his shirt into his underpants, called a clock on me. A clock! In a cash game! A $2/$5 cash game! And he wasn’t even in the hand! I was just in the middle of saying, ‘A clock? In a $2/$5 cash game?’ with suitable incredulity, when the floor man strode over and put the clock on me. He did this in the manner of a man who a) has almost nothing to do for hours at a time, and b) bought a watch with a sweep second hand specifically for this purpose and was finally getting to use it.
Naturally being a mature and considered individual I spent the 60 seconds of my ‘clock’ lambasting the guy who had called the clock and promising to call a clock on him most hands for the rest of the night. After mucking the hand, and enjoying more of the complimentary beverage service, I spent several gleeful hours shouting ‘Clock’ at him every time the action got to him. I don’t think I’m on his Christmas card list.
So… so far the lettuce has been eating the rabbit and I’m down in the cash games. But but by the end of the trip I promise I’ll get ahead and be sitting in Bobby’s Room – providing I can sneak in when all the big boys are off having a quick nap.
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