I am an amateur poker player. My name is Mark Burtman and I am 37 years old. My day job is as a board certified OB/GYN(Obstetrician and gynecologist), which means my day job is often a night job too. I have played poker since high school. I played my first casino poker game when I was 25, but I have only played with regularity since 1999.
My game became Omaha Hi-Lo. For the first year I lost a couple hundred dollars a session. I played at Station Casino in St Charles, Mo. I worked my game on the computer and by the end of 2000 I was starting to win an average of $200. I also moved to Paducah, Ky, which placed me closer Tunica, Ms. With my improved play, I decided I was ready to try to take on the likes of Scotty Nguyen, Richard Tatalovich, Melissa Hayden, Danny Negreanu, and many others, just to see how I would do against the best in the world.
In preparation, I worked the tournament software that Wilson Software produces and I came up with a tournament strategy. I also worked on my weaker games such as Hold-em. After working it everyday in December and January, I thought I was ready. I also started my first poker log-book of wins and losses on January 1st . To my dismay, I posted huge losses in January and February on trips to St Louis, Tunica and New Orleans. I thought I had the game down, but I obviously needed to rework my game. So I was back on the computer. After another month of work, I had about three weeks before the WPO was to start. I decided to try my luck on the internet. I went to Planet Poker and I won big. At one point I was ahead $4200, after a buy in of $200. My confidence was back.
My medical practice had become very busy. I usually take Fridays off, so I had planned to leave Thursday night and play till Sunday on two successive weekends. My goal was to play the Omaha Hi-Lo events on each weekend. The first weekend I went down the buy-ins were $500. The Omaha Hi-Lo event wasn’t till Sunday. Friday’s event was Stud Hi-Lo and Saturday’s event was Limit Hold-em. I really didn’t play Stud Hi-Lo, so I figured I would skip that event.
I showed up in the ballroom at the Gold Strike Thursday night about 8pm after a 3½-hour drive. I immediately went to the 1-table satellites. They were only playing Stud Hi-Lo because that was the next day’s event. It was $80 to play, I could afford it, and I wanted the action, even though I didn’t fancy myself a Stud Hi-LO player. I sat down at a table and I saw Linda Johnson sit across from me and also buy in. I was thrilled. I was going to get to play right away against a proven professional. She played the first hand most aggressively. By sixth street I had the only low and it was clear that she was playing her high hand against another high hand, so I capped off the betting on both sixth street and the river. She ended up losing with second best full house, and she was out the next hand. I was psyched. I outlasted my first pro. Moreover, I contributed to her early departure by capping off the betting. Unfortunately, I was out a few hands later when my flush lost to a full house. I had lost, but I felt I played the game rather well, especially considering I hadn’t played more than 2 hours in the last two years. I wanted another try at the satellite.
The next satellite started a few minutes later. Early on I ended up heads up holding a pair of Kings against someone I didn’t recognize. He was showing low and betting aggressively, but I didn’t think he had anything. So, I called him down and showed my pair of kings. He said, “Nice hand”, and mucked. From that point I sailed along comfortably, until reaching the final three with the chip lead. To my right was Chris Gregorian. He suggested that the winner pay back the entry fees to the two remaining losers, and we all agreed. I got very hot, hitting pairs of aces and full houses on fifth street. I thought I was going to win the satellite. I had a pair of tens in the hole and raised heads up against the bring in. This time he called me down and won with a full house. I was gone soon after that, but I got my buy-in back. So I decided to play one more satellite, which I actually won. I was especially pleased, because with three people left, I came from short stacked to win it all.
With my $500.00 buy-in chip in hand, I thought to save it for Saturday’s Limit Hold-em event. Then I figured that since I played pretty well at Stud Hi-Lo, I should go ahead and play the tournament in that event. I was really pumped. I called everyone I knew in Paducah to tell them that I won a satellite. I went to bed relatively early for me at a casino. I woke up at seven, too excited to sleep. So, I drove over to the Gold Strike from Sam’s Town, and spent the morning playing more satellites. I made the final three in my last satellite. I offered to make a deal for the entry fees, since we were all pretty even. One of my two opponents gruffly said, “No deals!” He then promptly blasted me out of the tournament in three hands. I didn’t like him. I didn’t know who he was, but I simply thought of him as the “Crotchety Old Bastard”(COB), every time I saw him the rest of the day. All I knew is that I wanted a piece of him later.
The tournament started soon after that encounter. I sat at a table with a bunch of people I didn’t recognize. There were 208 entries. Chris Gregorian was at the table and I had become acquainted with him during the satellites the night before. I really liked him, and he was very supportive of my efforts throughout the tournament. Play got underway, and on the second hand I came down heads-up against a young guy in a hockey jersey to my immediate left. He was betting into me aggressively and I called him down to the river, where I not only made my low, but I also made a straight. I was first to act so I checked, hoping to check raise. He immediately bet, and I immediately raised. The move hit him like a jolt. He actually flinched and then said, “Well, it looks like an early afternoon for me”, as he threw in his bet. I scooped the pot. We began talking, and it turned out to be Danny Negreanu. I promptly complimented him on his column, which I do enjoy. I also noted to myself that he was the second ranked Stud Hi-Lo player in the world so far in 2001. I was excited. We went head to head on many hands. He got the better of me sometimes and I got the better of him as well. On one such hand Danny was raising and reraising his obvious low against another with an obvious low. I decided that Danny had a 6 low, and the other guy had a 7 low, thereby deciding that my Kings-up would be good. As they raised and reraised I began to see my entire stack go into the pot. I thought I had made the worst poker decision of my life, but I stuck to my guns. When the dust settled Danny showed his 6 low and the other guy showed his 7 low. At this point I was standing and I exclaimed, “F#%$ Yeah, Kings and Threes, I can’t believe they held up” Danny and I split the pot. The other guy misread his hand. He thought he had a straight. I had a pair of threes, which they each needed to make their straights. I was still alive with a good stack of chips.
Danny and I continued to battle head to head on many hands. He scooped some and I scooped some. He survived several all-in plays to rebuild his stack. It looked like he finally getting the better of me as my stack was getting lean. People began to drop, and tables began to break. Into our open chair came that “Crotchety Old Bastard” as I thought of him. I had survived an all-in and scooped a pot with a pair of fours, but I was still lean compared to Danny. Then Danny went heads-up with the “Crotchety Old Bastard”(COB). The COB was showing low and Danny was playing high. Danny put all of his chips into the middle. Then the COB showed that he didn’t have low at all. He had a Full-House; Danny was gone. I was honored to have outlasted Danny, even though in the end, he clearly outplayed me. I was playing too many one-way hands with a single pair against people who I thought were going for low, and losing. I was down to enough chips for five big bets, but I had survived to the first break. I told myself that if I wanted to stay in this tournament I had to play only quality starting hands.
Soon after the break our table was broken up. I knew every hand I played would require me to go all in. My second table was very friendly with no one I recognized. Fortunately I was dealt some very good starting hands. I never called I only raised on Third Street. I was able to build my stack from a few black chips to over a thousand, by the time my table broke. I had a little breathing room.
My third table had the pro I most wanted to play against: Scotty Nguyen. Here I was short stacked facing the player I most admired from my reading. Also at the table was Tony Ma, who I was familiar with by name, however I didn’t recognize him till I asked him, “Do you play a lot of tournaments?” He just smiled and said, “Yeah”
“Your somebody I should a heard of, aren’t you?”
He was kind of embarrassed. So I asked him what his name was, and he told me.
“Oh, I know who you are”, I responded, “You’re a great player!”
He was even more embarrassed. Now I think of him as not only a great poker player, but a real nice guy as well. We faced off several times during the tournament in satellites and live games. He treated me with same respect he would treat any poker professional.
This is the table I felt really intimidated at. But, I kept talking to myself, telling myself to play smart. Somehow I had outlasted half of the competition. I began to gain some confidence, because as I played better, I won, just as when I played poorly, I lost. So felt that as long as I played smart I could stay alive. Despite the intimidation factor, I continued to win. I started counting how many antes I could survive. I had gone from being able to survive ten to being able to survive fifty. I watched Scotty Nguyen’s play. He had become short stacked. He struck me as a cautious player who liked to pounce when the situation called for it. I was in a multi-way pot on the river. My hand showed low with and ace, when in fact I had aces up. Scotty was in with an obvious high hand, that I presumed to be two pair weaker than aces. The third opponent had low. I checked my ace. The low player bet and Scotty raised all in. I called. I showed my aces-up and Scotty mucked. I knocked Scotty out of the tournament. This began a huge surge in my chip stack and confidence. For the first time I really felt that I would make the money, as my stack exceeded $6000.
Tony Ma was also short stacked. I got him all in and I had him Aces-up against his Kings-up, going into the river. His last card was a king, giving him the boat and he scooped the pot. Fortunately his stack was so short it didn’t really dent mine. Chris Gregorian was moved back to my table. We went heads-up against each other. I hit an ace high straight and my gut told me he didn’t hit his low, so I raised. I was right; He missed his low. Instead he had a full-house and scooped the pot. Thankfully, I had built up a sufficient stack that I could afford the loss. I was feeling really good. One by one the tables were whittled away until we were down to the final four tables, at which point we moved to the foyer to play our way down to the money, which would belong to the final three tables.
Now I was one of the chip leaders. My goal was not to build, rather it was to last. This is where my time on the Wilson tournament software prepared me. I had developed effective tournament strategy, and it was working. We were all given new table assignments, and two seats to my right was that “Crotchety Old Bastard”(COB). Soon into the action we went heads-up. I had an obvious low hand. By fourth-street the COB had paired his aces. He was betting and grumbling at the same time. By sixth-street I made my low with a pair of fives as well. He had no low and I had a straight draw, so I raised him back. He grumbled back, “So you made your low”, as he threw in his chips. On the river I made a six, giving me two pair. My gut told me that aces were all he had. I bet; He called; I scooped, thereby exacting my revenge on the “Crotchety Old Bastard”. Not only did I win the hand, I crippled him, leaving him short stacked at about $2000, while my stack swelled to $14,000. Now I was the one they went to when they raced off the black chips in exchange for the lavender $500 chips.
From that point onward I coasted into the money. I avoided major confrontations. I knew that I could let the short stacks be taken down while I coasted to the final table. I watched the COB, after our table was broken up, claw his way back up from nowhere. He survived several all-ins. Then I heard the name, John Bonetti, being bantered about. I had never seen him, but I read plenty about him. So I asked Chris Gregorian, who was once again at my table, where John Bonetti was. He pointed directly behind me to the next table: The Crotchety Old Bastard. I had no idea I had been playing against him all day. My last great act of the tournament was scooping a pot from Rich Korbin, which put him out of it. A month later he won the Stud Hi-Lo event at the World Series of Poker. Soon thereafter a few more players dropped, and I made the final table, along with John Bonetti, and Chris Gregorian. The first thing I did was go and shake John Bonetti’s hand. I told him, “All day I was playing against you and I didn’t know who you were. I have read all about you, but I had never seen your picture.” He smiled and asked me who I was. He congratulated me, and told me he wasn’t trying to be a jerk by not making a deal earlier in the satellite.
I was ecstatic. I called everyone in Paducah and told them I was in the final table. It was 11:30 pm and I was completely exhausted. I had developed a whole new respect for pros who do this day in and day out.
The final table was at 4:00pm the next day. I was now down to $7300 in chips in 7th place. Dave Rabbi, who I also got to know fairly well had less than $2000 in chips. My plan was to wait until Dave was out before making any moves. By simply waiting for Dave’s exit my minimum win went from $2000 to $3000. It didn’t take long and that left me at the bottom. I had to play or be gone. I made a terrible play against the chip leader with a pair of Kings in the hole. He had an ace showing which paired by fifth-street. I needed to throw my hand a way, but I didn’t. This took me down to less than $6000, and I was in trouble. After chopping a pot with Chris Gregorian, I made my all in move against Gene Timberlake. I had an Ace, Queen and another low card against his King –deuce- three. Once I was all-in they broadcasted the hand to the whole room. Gene paired his threes. Then I paired my Queen, just after Gene paired his King. I needed an ace or another Queen to stay alive. Instead I paired my Jack. My queens and Jacks lost to his Kings and threes. Everyone at the table got up to shake hands with me. Gene, who would not have survived another hand if I had beat him, went on to take second, almost taking down Scott Aigner’s insurmountable chip lead.
Overall, this was the most exciting gambling experience of my life. Poker is the only competitive event where an amateur like me can come in with some preparation and take down the top players in the game. I would never be able to hit a Randy Johnson fastball or return a Pete Sampras serve. But in Tunica on my son’s birthday(March 30th), I held my own against some of poker’s best. Of course this article gives rise to another question, which I will answer in my next article: Was it just a fluke?
Mark Burtman