In his first column for Poker Player, Sorel ‘Imper1um’ Mizzi gets all riled up over one or two clocks at the World Series…
Well, it’s all over for another year, but how was my World Series? Put simply, the partying was good, the poker not so good and – unfortunately – I managed to lose it a couple of times. I got myself really wound up about people stalling for too long when it was totally unnecessary. Before this Vegas trip I’d only ever called the clock on someone once in a live tournament, but I ended up calling it SIX times in one session during the $1,500 PLO rebuy tournament!
It all started when a Russian guy, Nikolay Evdakov, went into the tank for 10 minutes when given what I considered an easy decision to make. Rami Boukai, who was all-in with a short stack, got so bored by the wait that he eventually just walked off! I’d had enough and called for the clock, with the Russian waiting until the VERY last second to fold his hand. I scooped the main pot but Rami won the side pot, yet he was nowhere to be seen!
I told a few people to go find Rami, as he was still in the tournament and would be forced to auto-muck his hand in the big blind in two more hands. There was no sign of him so I decided to stall for a while. I’d have done that for anybody and not just because I know Rami from online. Just like in the movies, Rami appeared with seconds to spare, pushed all-in and ended up tripling up – it would have made a great story if he’d ended up taking down the tournament!
Anyway, some deliberate stalling (in my mind) carried on, so with the day running out and, to be honest, a faster game suiting my style of play, I decided to keep calling the clock on players. Naturally, it came back to bite me…
No time to waste
The continuous calling for the clock had annoyed the floor, and on one of the last hands of the day I had to make a call for my tournament life. Now I can’t say for certain I’d have done anything different if given more time, but I was certainly not given the opportunity when the clock was called on me almost instantly, and I was given just 30 seconds to act. I tried to argue that I had a real decision to make as opposed to the other players who had been stalling, but the floor wouldn’t listen.
So, not only did I not get my three minutes to act on the hand before the clock was called on me, but the two players who had been intentionally stalling went unpunished despite my earlier complaints and the testimonials of everyone else at the table.
I told Nikolay Evdakov in no uncertain terms (and in language that can’t be printed here) what I thought of him, shook my opponent’s hand and walked off. At such a high level of play you’d think that the floor people would know the rules and be consistent in enforcing them, and I actually feel like the Rio owes me a formal apology and some sort of financial compensation.
Talking of compensation, I should really be getting some from the Luxor casino as well. I actually managed to get myself thrown out (politely asked to leave) because I ‘looked at my cards funny’. Apparently you are supposed to show your cards to the camera and have minimal contact with them. I guess we (I was there with new Betfair pro John Tabatabai) had annoyed the management by having side bets on a game of three-card poker, but it was just to add a bit of interest and I didn’t think we were doing any harm.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, we were banned from playing. John was more annoyed than me, but I was pretty mad myself because I’d just started going on a great run at the table!
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