© June 25, 2007
By Daniel Cox
Editor, Gaming Review On Line

Las Vegas– It took thirty years to make the dream come true and only an hour for a nightmare hand to end it. I had wanted to come to the World Series of Poker since I had first heard of it playing barracks poker as a Private in the Army in the mid-1970’s. This was going to be another Jim McManus story, with a poker journalist making it to the final table of a World Championship event. To set the stage, I lost a $275 Satellite on Day 1 of the 2005 WSOP (with a bad beat story involving actor James Woods). In 2006, on Satellite Day prior to the Main Event, I chopped two $225 Satellites to go up $1,400. I saved that money for the 2007 World Championship Seniors Texas Hold’em (No-Limit) $1,000 Buy-In. Tom McEvoy, Men “The Master” Nguyen, “Amarillo Slim” Preston were only a few of the top names in poker competing.

Listening to “Oklahoma” Johnny Hale lead 1,800 plus seniors in the Pledge of Allegiance shortly past noon was very stirring, as was the call for a moment of thought for our service personnel overseas. Still sporting a neck brace from surgery on my cervical spine in June, I was happy with my starting position in seat 3. The player in seat 10 looked familiar, but I could not quite place him. The other eight players looked confident and ready to play. There was a lot of discussion about the relative small size of the chip stack with just $2,000 in chips to start (up from only $1,000 in previous years).

On the second hand, while under the gun, I called the $50 with an A – 8 of suit. Five players were in the hand to see a ragged low rainbow flop. With both blinds checking to me, I raised 200 and the hand was mine. In the next two rounds, from either the big or small blind a $150 pre-flop raise narrowed the field to one player and a $200 raise caused them to fold. The discussion at the table was centered on of the lack of All-ins with rags when playing a senior event. Several stories of young wild players were relayed for a laugh all around. 

Forty minutes into the first hour, I held a King – 10 off suit from the Big Blind, I again raised to $150 to limit the field to the player I knew, but did not know. The flop of 10 – 7 – 8 with two spades brought a check from seat 10. With top pair I raised $200 and Seat 10 called. The 10 of spades on the turn brought another check, I raised $200 and was again called. The 4 of diamonds on the river brought another check and so I felt good with making a $400 bet, expecting a fold. Instead Seat 10 called to make the biggest pot of the table so far at over $2,000. I turned over my hand, expecting trip 10s to beat the two small pair I thought my opponent held. Unfortunately two small spades stared back at me and I lost nearly half of my stack. I later asked the player in Seat 10 his name, and when he told me Hans Lund, I immediately recognized him. “Tuna” won the first of two WSOP bracelets in 1978 and has been at the WSOP Main Event final table twice. He finished second to Mansour Matloubi in 1990 (with Stu Unger finishing 9^th at the same final table). He finished third to Hamid Dasmalchi two years later (helping thwart Johnny Chan’s bid for a third Main Event bracelet when he finished 7^th).

A couple minutes later, Oklahoma Johnny came to the table to thank us all for playing and wishing us luck. He then told the rest of table that the player in Seat 10 had taking an awful lot of money off of him over the years. I still could not place a name to the face, but it was coming closer. A few more hands at our table and we finally had our first player knocked out. His replacement in Seat 1 came to the table with an average stack for so early into a 3-day event.

My Ace – 10 of hearts went to the river when a fairly large bet scared off my two Aces in the face of a diamond flush draw showing on the board, which cost me $450 in chips. A couple more rounds and a couple more small hands left me with about $1,400 in chips. With only a few minutes until the blind increase I was again in the Small Blind. My typical $150 raise with the King – 6 of spades left me facing the player in seat 1, who I later found out was Ted Smith, from Vancouver, Washington. A flop of K – 9 – K spiked my heart rate a bit. Ted led off with a check, so to hide the strength of my hand I also checked. When an Ace came on the turn Ted again checked. I decided to represent a matching Ace in my hand so I made a $250 bet. When a 6 fell on the river and another check from Ted I felt a $250 value bet was best. When Ted came back with an over the top All-in I figured the river must have given him Aces over Sixes or possibly trip Sixes. I practically beat him into the pot with the call. My heart fell and my dream was crushed when the case King with the 9 made a higher boat and sent me to the rail. 

Though it always hurts to get knocked out of a tournament, there is some solace in playing well and being beaten by players playing better that eases the pain slightly, especially if they own two WSOP bracelets and have made two Main Event final tables.