This is not a wholesome story. If anything, it is an example of the sort of trouble I can get into when I don't have a productive job to fill the hours.
That's not to say it wasn't fun.
The tale spans seven days during which time I win two poker tournaments and do very well in a third.
Winning the first tournament afforded me a chance to try playing in the second tournament, while still keeping some profit in my pocket. The prize for winning the second tournament was a $25,000 seat in the North American Poker Tour High Roller Bounty Shootout at Mohegan Sun. Winning that $25,000 seat lead to a choice....
If you are interested in how this came to be, please read on. If you like, you can click any of the pictures to zoom in.
Here's where it began. The game was Texas Hold 'em, no-limit, with a $200 bounty. Out of a field of 112 players, and after a long day of playing, I wind-up the chip leader at the final table. When we are down to 8 players remaining, we all agree to a deal and divide up the tournament prize money based primarily on who has how many chips. I am declared the winner. We continue play, for no money, largely because some want to earn "Player of the Year Points." I go out #5.
The prize I received is actually more than the $4900 listed above. I Earn an additional 5 X $200 in bounties for eliminating players along the way. Also, the three smallest stacks paid me an additional sum. The math is important because it allowed me to consider buying-in to the next tournament.
That's this one. It was a satellite tournament. The term "satellite" alludes to the tournament's proximity to a larger and more expensive tournament. Satellites allow players to pay a comparatively small sum to try and win an expensive seat in a later tournament. In this case, the "small sum" is $5250, an amount I would typically characterize as "insane." The casino sweetens the deal. They ensure that a minimum of 10 seats will be awarded. The tournament attracts just under 40 players, for approximately 1 to 4 odds of winning. Having just outlasted 111 other poker players, I talk myself into laying down the cash to get in. I figure if I lose, I'm still ahead dollarwise and I'll chalk it up to experience. I came to play.
I win. My buddy Matt periodically looks in. He tells me I am surrounded by professional players. I say "O.K."
As you might expect, when there are 11 people left, play becomes pretty intense. Every hand seems very important. In the end, I am in the hand where the last player gets eliminated. 10 of us get our seats for the next day. It's almost midnight.
As I am walking to the cashier to pick-up my ticket for the next day's tournament, one of the players offers to buy the seat from me for a tiny discount. Essentially, $25,000 cash. I pause. I take stock of my situation. I am still out the $5250 entry fee. My only other hope of recouping that expense is to win something at the tournament tomorrow and that tournament will be filled with accomplished professional players. Selling the seat is the smart move. I thank the guy and ask him to ask me again tomorrow.
I briefly think about spending the night at the hotel at The Mohegan Sun Casino. The drive home and back is 4 hours roundtrip. I am wearing jeans and a t-shirt and have not much in my pockets, except my iPod, a book, and my wallet. I make the trip home where I tell myself I can shave and get a fresh change of clothes for tomorrow's event. It will, after all, be filmed by ESPN.
Home, sleep, return. I arrive at 11:45 a.m. for the noon tournament. I am again offered $25,000 for my seat. I decline, having committed to playing.
I think I am better prepared, having also spent some time online reading about who I will be playing against. Prepared or not, I am afraid. Mostly, I don't want to wind-up a loser on international television.
My first inkling that things might not go as I expect occurs when I realize I am the first player to arrive. All I see is a T.V. crew and a lot of dealers. I naively ask, "Is this where the tournament is?" An adorable ESPN producer says "Yes. You are the first one here. If you want, we can do your photoshoot now. What do you say?" I say "O.K." I stand in front of a green screen for 10 minutes while the flashes pop. The photographer tells me he likes my shirt because it will give me a great lower third. I say, "Uh-huh." He says that means the graphic overlay will be very readable. I say "Thanks."
The pros show-up 30 to 60 minutes later.
That includes this blinking guy, Daniel Negreanu. Daniel's lifetime televised poker winnings total well over $10,000,000. Check this out:
http://www.fullcontactpoker.com/daniel-negreanu/trophy-room.php
... it's impressive. Mostly, he seems like an energetic people person who loves the game.
He's arguably, for good reason I think, an ambassador for the poker industry. I felt grateful that he agreed to pose for this ridiculous picture.
The game will be Texas Hold 'em, no-limit, shootout, with a bounty. This time the bounty for eliminating a player is $5000. The levels will have 60 minute intervals. The term "shootout" means that you have to win your table to advance to the second day.
While I am waiting around, I chat with several of the players I met the previous day. I ask this friendly guy, Hoyt Corkins, if he has ever played on T.V. He says "Yah." I ask him what to expect and he gives me a couple of pointers. Love the guy's cowboy hat and briefly wish I had worn mine. Later, I come to learn he is this dude: http://www.hoytcorkins.com/winnings/ and I feel silly for asking him if he had played on T.V.
I figure I have to eliminate one player to make back most of what I paid to buy-in the previous day. Anything after that is gravy. To put things in perspective, players who win their table earn a $60,000 bonus. The player who collects the most bounties earns an additional $100,000. Winning the table on day 2 is worth an additional ~$350.000. Not bad for a couple days of cards. I realize I didn't need my morning coffee to wake-up.
Table and seat assignment is random and is performed with a ceremony of sorts. Players are called up by name to draw a card indicating where they will play. As they are called up to the front of the room, their poker accomplishments are announced. When it's my turn, the announcer just says "Perry Horwich."
As you can see by the result on the right, I get seated at the "television table." I am matched against Daniel Negreanu. Sorel Mizzi, at the time, was the 2010 Poker Player of the Year points leader. Faraz Jaka is a 24 year old guy whose televised winnings total between 2 and 3 million dollars. Brian Lemke won a World Series of Poker bracelet playing No Limit Hold 'em in 2009 and his winnings total over a million dollars. Joe Gibbons is a local guy who owned some car dealerships. He actually overslept and came late, not sitting down until after we had played a few hands. He paid his $25,000 to play and lasted about 2 hours before he was eliminated.
More than one hour late, we sit down to play.
Yah, I'm the guy taking pictures. I have clearly decided to not try to hide the very obvious fact that I am the tourist at the table.
Thankfully, I win the 4th or 5th hand with a modest pot of 3 or 4 thousand in tournament chips. I breathe a quiet sigh of relief and play very conservatively for the next hour or so.
My first big break comes when I play 4♦ 5♦ and hit 2 pair on the flop. This evolves into a full house on the turn. With two players betting into me, I am in an ideal situation. I eliminate Sorel Mizzi and win his $5000 chip. If my stack had been just a bit bigger, I would have had Joe Gibbons' as well. later, during a scheduled break, I was approached by several reporters and/or bloggers. The questions were pretty much the same, "Who are you?" I tried to give polite and useful answers.
One of my favorite hands of the afternoon involved my bluffing Daniel out of a winning hand. The board turned a pair of jacks. A number of things made it a good play for me at the time, including the bet evolution and how I had been playing relatively few hands, but it was satisfying to hear him complain as he laid his hand down.
Daniel had been playing a lot of hands throughout the day, winning some and losing some. It's an aggressive style that can pay off, but requires a lot of skill and some luck to work well. On a swing where his stack was below average size, he moved all-in with A9 offsuit. Not a bad shorthanded play. Jaka had him outstacked. With Daniel's $5000 chip on the line, I imagine it was harder for Jaka to fold. Still, Jaka was very lucky to win with the J♠ 6♠ he played. Daniel was out. As he was leaving and shaking hands, Daniel said to me, "I really hope you win. I want to sit next to you and coach you." I smiled and thanked him. It was a thrill to play at the same table with him.
And then there were two. Faraz Jaka and I were heads-up. If I could beat him, I'd earn $65,000 more and advance to the final table on day 2.
I was a 3 to 2 chip leader. Over ninety minutes, I worked up to a 2 to 1 chip leader and then gave some back until we both had equal stacks again. Then I bet into a flush and it cost me 90% of my stack. This was the hand that really beat me. Some time later, I lose my few remaining chips and Jaka gets my $5000 bounty.
The end came suddenly. I gave a short interview with an ESPN camera crew. Spoke to some dude from Pokerstars.
Later the next day, I read the PokerStars blog excerpt above and to the right. The line "Faraz Jaka has broken the resistance of Horwich." kept me smiling and laughing for hours. This has since lead to my having an actual poker nickname "The Resistance."
This pic is taken from the PokerStars blog and was captioned "Perry Horwich is eliminated by Faraz Jaka."
Yah, there is nothing fun about losing.pokergamingall inplaying cardshigh stakesNAPTmain eventtournamentsPokerstarsTexas Hold'empoker imagespoker photosbraceletsUncasville ConnecticutMohegan Sun Hotel Casinoprofessional poker playersNorth American Poker Tourperryhorwich
I gave some money to tzedakah and put the rest in the bank. Amongst other things, I now have an online Bluff Power Rating. I am not really sure what that is, but if you want to play some cards, I'd love to.
ADDENDUM:
Some video can be found here:
https://youtu.be/v6qflNe4beU
