Change100 at PokerWorks

“Sometimes, you’ve just got to say, ‘what the fuck?’”

-Risky Business

Anna Wroblewski’s story is a good one. It’s perhaps the sweetest poker Cinderella story since a guy named Moneymaker parlayed $39 into $2.5 million nearly four years ago at the WSOP. As the legend goes, then-19 year old Anna left her native Chicago for Las Vegas 2 years ago to take a shot at making a living as a poker pro. Playing underage in Strip casinos, Anna’s luck ran afoul and she soon lost her bankroll, necessitating her return home. Now 21, Anna recently came back to Vegas to give it another try, but went broke again. To pay her bills, she got a $10/hr. restaurant job and took her first week’s paycheck, all $300 of it, to the Bellagio where she bought into a single-table satellite for the $3,000 Five-Star Classic NLHE event. Anna won the satellite, and the $3K tournament. After a chop was made, Anna took home close to $300,000 and a $25,000 seat into the WPT World Championships. I’m guessing she also quit her job.

Following the Bellagio coverage yesterday, I loved that Anna was downing beers and hopping around the Fontana Lounge amidst a sea of hardened poker faces. Tripling up early in the first day of play, she exuded the sort of unfiltered confidence at the table that can only come with a life-changing score. Financial burdens are instantly lifted. Self-doubt vanishes. You feel like you can compete. That you deserve to be there. There’s a part of all of us, as poker players, that wants to be that story.

I saw this photo Amy Calistri took of Anna getting a massage and instantly thought about how at this time last week, she probably couldn’t afford such an indulgence. For now, she looks content to enjoy her moment in the sun, smiling at the swarming poker media as she builds her chip stack.

Um, Brandi who?

After grabbing dinner at the Mirage Cafe last night, Pauly asked me if I was going to stay and play while he went back to the room to write. I wasn’t sure what time I’d have over the next few days to play so I decided to go and get on a list. As he left me at the entrance to the poker room, he poked me in the forehead and said “CONFIDENCE. Just play with confidence and you’ll do fine. OK? ”

I walked up to the podium and looked at the lists. I knew I wanted to play limit, not NL. 3-6 and 6-12 were running and there was immediate seating at 6-12. The manager looked at me and asked if I wanted the 6-12 seat. Before I could chicken out and say no, I pulled out my wallet and bought in for my entire bankroll. $400.

Sometimes, you’ve just got to say “what the fuck?” Especially when you’re $400 away from broke at poker. Anna said “what the fuck” and it paid off. Thousands more say “what the fuck” every weekend in the city of Las Vegas and most of them go home far lighter in the wallet then when they arrived. But what, really, is $400 in poker? Absolutely nothing. I know a man who paid another man that very amount to eat keno crayons. If I won $400 more or lost it all, would my life really be any different? Not really. But was the potential there to take a shot, in a crowded casino full of guys in bad shirts who were already half in the bag and end up with a positive result? Perhaps– if I could play with confidence.

On the third hand, some Botoxed douchebag in a yellow sweatshirt cracked my A-A with 5-8 offsuit. He had G-Rob’s hair, only blonde and called two bets cold from middle position. Flopped two pair, we went three bets on the flop and I check-called the rest of the way. There was a lot of limping, some drinking, and I made what I lost on that hand back right away when I turned a straight with K-Q and got paid off two ways.

About an hour in, a kid who couldn’t have been more than 17 or 18 sat down two to my right. He looked like he could be Jordan Morgan’s kid brother. Seriously, this kid barely looked old enough to drive a car and here he was, unracking $500 in redbirds at table 26 in the Mirage Poker Room. I had my typical tightbox image when he joined the table, so I decided to get a little creative on my first hand against him. Holding K-5 from the big blind, I check-raised him on a flop of Q-4-5 and he called. The turn was a beautiful K. I bet again and he called. River was a J. I bet and he paid me off again. He showed K-T and I dragged a nice one. A few orbits later, we hooked up again. I had As-Ac on an awful flop of J-J-6, which only got worse when the turn two-flushed the board in diamonds, and the river paired sixes. He bet out on the river and I said “man, how can this happen twice in one night?” as I made the crying call for $12 more. He mucked with a sigh as soon as I turned over my cards.

After two hours, I quit +$275, very pleased with the session. Pauly was perhaps even more pleased that I came home with a smile on my face instead of roaring with mega-tilt.

I played another short session at the 6-12 early this afternoon, but the lineup wasn’t quite as juicy. I don’t know what could give me that impression– maybe the off-duty dealer on my left? I quit down about $75, but still +$200 is still a smashing rate for only 4 or so hours of play.

Tonight, I bought into the WPBT Circuit limit hold’em event on Full Tilt with a $26 token and ended up finishing third for $100. I got my money in pretty much as good as one can get it in– as a 3-1 favorite on the flop and a 4-1 favorite on the turn before my two pair were runner-runner flushed. Ugliness. Congrats to Maigrey who took it down. I’m just happy to be off the blogger tournament schneid!

So between the Mirage 6-12, the WPBT cash, a couple of $22 SNG wins on Full Tilt, and one session of 1-2 razz, I doubled my paltry bankroll this weekend. I’m no Anna Wroblewski, but it’s a start.

Let’s see if I can’t do it again before I leave Vegas.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 22nd, 2007 at 10:49 pm and is filed under Uncategorized.