In his first World Series Of Poker event of 2007 Michael Greco experiences the highs and lows of tournament poker
There’s a poker expression called ‘stop and go’, where a player will call a raise when he’s first to act after the flop and shoves his chips in on the flop regardless of the cards. Can I just say that this was not my intention, but I’d decided that I was going to lump in if I hit the board hard in an attempt to make myself look weak.
I called a raise in the big blind with Q-J suited. With running antes at 500 and blinds of 6000/12,000, I was getting good value for my high suited connectors. The board came J-9-2 and as soon as I saw the Jack I shoved all- in for my last 120,000. A bold move you might say, but he’d been constantly raising and picking up the blinds and I’d decided enough was enough. If he had the goods, fair play, but we were approaching the final table of a bracelet event and I wanted to be in good shape and give myself a chance of winning.
Just as I hoped, he said, ‘What a surprise, the stop- and-go move, huh? I call.’ I turned over my hand and he looked as if he’d seen a ghost. He showed a monster… A-8 offsuit!? He called three- quarters of his chips with Ace-high! The turn brought a Ten and, you guessed it, an Ace dropped on the river. Gutted. The player leapt to his feet shouting, ‘Yes, baby! Yes! Yes! Yes!’ Okay, firstly, I’m not his baby, and secondly, what an awful call!
Calmly does it The one good thing that came out of it is I now know my temperament is improving dramatically because all that came out of my mouth was, ‘Well played.’ Okay, it was a sarcastic ‘well played’, but believe me, those who knew me a few months ago would have expected me to call this donk every name under the sun, done a David Banner, turned green, and smashed everything in sight. Had I won that pot I would have been second chip leader and almost guaranteed a seat at the final table. Oh well, $15k and the honour of being top- placed European was a nice compensation.
I’m going to save any wild celebrations for the bracelet though. I’m hitting the gym regularly at the moment as I’m starting a new film when I get home and piling on the pounds is a no-no!
Michael Greco is sponsored by Dusk Till Dawn and plays his poker at www.dtdpoker.com under the handle MicGreco.
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