© August 16, 2007
By Daniel Cox
Editor, Gaming Review On Line

Los Angeles – One good thing about being a Poker journalist is that I get invitations to play in Freerolls at the top casinos and card rooms around the world. The summer of 2007, prior to the Legends of Poker World Poker Tour (WPT) Main Event at the Bicycle Club near Los Angeles, I was invited to one such tournament. The thing I like best about these tournaments is that I play with some of the best players in the world without having to pay a huge buy-in. I have played at the same table with Kathy Liebert and “Brooklyn Dan” Pugliese at Binion’s Horseshoe and at the same tournaments with Amarillo Slim, Tom McManus and many others. Being able to get up close as Phil Hellmuth throws a temper tantrum or Doyle Brunson shows a bluff is exciting to watch and has been extremely beneficial to improving my own game. Prior to this tourney I played in a $175 satellite with Hans “Tuna” Lund, the 1990 Main Event Runner-up and 1992 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event third place finisher, as well as owning two WSOP bracelets.

The Bike tournament was fairly small, with around 100 players. The prizes were divided between the poker professionals and the journalists, with the top pro getting a $10,000 seat to the Legends Main Event and the top reporter getting $2,500 cash and a $2,500 donation to the charity of choice. I felt good going in, knowing that a lot of the reporters cannot play as well as they write. Though I wanted the experience of having a top professional at my table, I am still not good enough to take them down consistently. I drew Seat 5 and was ready for action with no pros in sight. Right as the tournament director announced “Shuffle up and deal,” Barbara Enright sat down in seat 2. She is a two-time WSOP bracelet holder and along with Phil Hellmuth, was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame at this year’s WSOP. There was some joking going on as she claimed to not have a seat card, so we finally convinced her to look in her purse and there was the placard she said she never received. After two hands, seat 6 was filled by “Miami John” Cernuto, with WSOP two bracelets and enumerable final tables and top-ten in WSOP cashes, it was not the person I wanted to my left. As a loose-aggressive player, I would have preferred to have him in seat 3, since it is best to have “Not tight on the right.”

This tournament was structured to run quick, giving us only $1,000 in chips and raising the blinds every 20 minutes. Nearing the end of the first hour, and down to $575 in chips after a couple of opponents’ suck outs, the blinds were getting close to the point were I would be short-stacked in a couple of rounds. After smooth calling my Ace Eight of Hearts along with Miami John and two others, Seat 1 had the button and made a small protection raise. Barbara, with $3,000 in chips, made a raise to $300 and the pot was big enough that I felt it warranted an All In to hopefully chase everyone off the pot and give me enough chips to become a force at the table. Unfortunately, Miami John raised All In with $650 and Barbara did the same. I felt a rumble in my stomach at two raisers behind me. John turned over the pocket Cowboys and Barbara flipped the Rin Tin Tin. We all know how often an Ace shows up on the board so I still felt I had a chance. Unfortunately, the board did not improve anyone’s hand, so I headed for the rail with the experience of playing with them and realizing how close I came to having an even better story of taking down two superstars.