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Before I tell you what happened to me in my events, a little update on Pops. We arrived back in Vegas on Sunday. Dad had yet to decide whether or not to enter the Main Event, but off we went to the Rio anyway, certain the answer would come to him after arriving. Sitting just outside the Amazon Room, about fifteen feet from the cashier cage, I posed two key questions to my father. Firstly,
Me: You know what, Dad? Forget it. Let's just go play at the Bellagio in their tournament.
Dad: Ok.
Me: How do you feel about that?
Dad: A little disappointed, but ok.
And secondly,
Me: Ok, go buy your ticket.
Dad: Ok.
Me: Now, how do you feel about that?
Dad: Excited.
Confusion cleared: ticket bought. Like me in the Ladies, this would be Dad's second main event. Last year was certainly memorable and is worth a bit of re-telling.
We arrived at his table to find no dealer, no chips and no players, no anything. I went to read a small sign taped to it when someone stopped us with, "Are you at this table? Then you're over there." We followed his pointer finger with our eyes all the way to ESPN's featured table. Uh-oh. Nervously Dad wondered who he'd been unlucky enough to draw lots with, but he didn't have to wonder for long. He was to have Sammy Farha to his immediate right and Daniel Negreanu a few seats to his left. His first time in the main event, tossed into the deep end with the sharks. You may remember some of this from ESPN. In the first hand Sammy doubled up. Actor Oliver Hudson (Goldie Hawn's son, Kate Hudson's brother) had the great misfortune to find pocket tens in the first hand and flop a full house. With a board of A-A-10, how was he to know Sammy held A-10, essentially the only hand that could beat him? That's ten thousand dollars, gone in the blink of an eye. At least it's a good story. So, the one guy you really don't want to see accumulating chips is now the tournament chip leader and the official table bully. At least he was on Dad's right. Negreanu hadn't even shown up yet.Dad played smart and tight for a while. He appeared to be cool and together, but my guess was that with the famous players, the fans yelling in the bleachers, the microphone wire snaking down his back and the lipstick camera watching his every move were probably getting to him. How could they not?
Negreanu finally appeared and as brilliantly as he played, things never went his way. This guy's read on people is sick. There isn't a move he would have done differently if he could have seen his opponent's hole cards. That day, however, I think he would have taken lucky over good. For my part, I'm staying as far away from that dude as possible if I'm even thinking about poker.
Dad got involved in a few hands that we, unfortunately, knew would make the ESPN cut. In one, he didn't really make a mistake and would have knocked out two players, Negreanu being one of them, if he had made a gutsy call with pocket sevens. In the hand Negreanu did get knocked out in, however, Dad got married to pocket kings in a bad way. It's a mistake he hasn't repeated to this day. With Negreanu's exit, however, we knew the hand would be replayed on ESPN's coverage three times a day for months. We weren't disappointed.
Dad did win a number of hands throughout the day but, of course, none of those were televised. It turns out, oddly enough, it didn't really matter. It's amazing who came out of the woodwork to give credit. Everyone we knew and some people Pops had forgot he even knew called and wrote over the next few months, excited beyond belief at his celebrity poker player status. He might have been knocked out just before the dinner break (after the cameras sent us away and focused on Phil Hellmuth), but the fun, mild fame and reconnection with old friends continues even now, a year later. My favorite part of the ESPN coverage? A little bit of commentary that went something like this: "Simberg played stud in college, then taught his daughter how to play…A few years later, she taught him to play hold 'em." Thanks for the shout out, Dad. The episode has an eternal place of honor on my beloved Tivo.
What a difference a year makes! The TV stuff was fun for sure, but yesterday, Dad came to play. He has worked on his game and has come a long way from a guy overwhelmed by a few lights and cameras. Because he bought in so late, he was placed in the fourteenth table of alternates. It took over three hours for 140 people to bust, but bust they did and in went Dad. The alternates start at a brand new table with complete starting stacks, so their only disadvantage is that they've lost the time to build their stacks up. Of course, they haven't had the chance to bust yet, either.
Like my 55 minutes in the Ladies Event, I first wanted Dad to just make the dinner break, which he did, with a stack of almost $15,000. The highlight had been a 6 high straight flush with the 4 and 5 of diamonds in his corner. Dinner was followed by seven more hours of play, ending at 3 am. As I watched from afar, I set little goals for him in my head. First, just make the next round; Just make the top half of the field; Just survive one more hour and you'll get to bag chips for the first time ever in a WSOP event. We secretly texted back and forth so Mom and I were a little more updated than we should have been.
Overall, Dad played a textbook first day of the main event. He stayed away from big hands, saw a lot of cheap flops, stole some blinds, slowly built his stack and avoided races. Remarkably in fact, he wasn't involved in a single race all day. He sits with $23,825 right now and is only ever so slightly behind the average chip stack. He has today off and back to the tables on Wednesday. Please send him luck and aces if you can.
I will keep you updated on Dad's progress and return to my story as well. For now, Vegas is our oyster. If you guys have anything to add, subtract or multiply, you can email me at Brittani@hollywoodpoker.com. Your comments or questions just might make their way into the blog. :)
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