The Beau Rivage Million Dollar Heater Series Insanity & Degeneracy lead to life changing events

Saturday January 7th I left my house to begin my weekend trip to The Beau Rivage in Biloxi Mississippi for their Million Dollar Heater Series. I had about $1.5k or so with the plan of playing in Day 1B of their opening 200K guaranteed event which had already drew 690+ players with less than 100 surviving day 1 & advancing to day 2. The guarantee had been met with Day 1B yet to begin. There would be tremendous value in registering for this event. After registration was closed, 1453 players had registered & 99 players would make the money with $72K going to first place. The pay-out schedule was rather top heavy with over 59% of the prize pool going to the final 9 players & a min-cash was receiving right around 3 times their buy-in. So for a $350 Buy-In, I have the opportunity to play for a $422,823 prize pool, that’s insane! I forget my headphones at home. Insta-badbeat! I have to spend $300 to buy some new ones ASAP!

I go to registration to register for the event & I am assigned table 57 seat 7. I take my seat & I immediately recognize no one at my table. The button is placed in the two seat and the tournament director announces “Lets shuffle up & deal”. It’s officially time to do work. I sit at the table patiently & after the first orbit I get dealt 10-10 from utg+2. UTG raises to T150, I flat, & it folds around to the BTN who also flats. The SB completes, BB folds, & we will see a flop with T650 in the middle in Level 1 with blinds of 25/50. The flop comes out 10-8-6hhx. Not a bad flop until I see the SB lead out for T1200 then the original raiser from UTG re-raises to T6300. My initial reaction was like W.T.F.? The SB just open lead for twice the pot on the 10th hand of the tournament & UTG the original raiser re-raises. We started the hand with T10k & I now have 2 choices. I can fold or I can tank ship. I go with the later because let’s face it. Folding is so results oriented. The BTN folds & I get snap called in both spots, we now have a T30K+ pot at 25/50. This is so sick & so insane. The SB has AKhh for a flush draw with 2 overs, UTG has 79hh for a flopped straight & open ended straight flush draw, & I have top set looking for the case 10 or the board to pair other than the 6h as well as having to avoid the Jh. The 5d comes on the turn giving me additional equity. I mean pre-flop in a 3 way opened pot I have roughly 45.5% equity. I am never folding here, I have equity outs to win this pot & have T30K from a starting stack of T10K @ 25/50. Even though I flop top set on that board I do manage to lose about 15-16% of my pre-flop equity & must pick up some on the turn. My equity is further reduced to about 21% & I have about 12 outs with 1 to come. The 6h hits the river & I gasp for a second, it only takes a split second to realize that I just made top full house to only get the final nail driven in my coffin by a straight flush on the river. GG $350. I am glad I was able to contribute. A gross way to begin the trip but lets not be results oriented. I made the correct play. I was just super unfortunate for the board to run out that way.

Now that I have been eliminated from the tournament in such gross fashion I decide to head down to the poker room & play 2/5 NL cash. I sit down with about $500 to start which is rather short relative to other stacks at the table. Needless to say I blow a quick $500 & reload with another $500. Several hands later from the SB I look down at the AKdd & the action returns to me with several limpers into me. I decide to raise to $35 with the intention of taking it down without contest. There were at least 6 limpers into me. UTG+3 decides to re-raise $100 on top & it folds to me. I tank ship for $500 total knowing that if he made this move with 10-10+ but not KK or AA & AK, AQ, AJ suited. I figured the worst spot I may be in is a flip. I may be giving him a little too much credit but in the end my AK high was good & I scoop the $1k+ pot. I play from about 1pm to about 7pm. I cash out right at $2k which brought a little $1k profit.

I decide to go back upstairs to check out the tournament & decide to play the nightly. The nightly was a $210 buy in & the only player at my table I recognized was Nancy Birnbaum. Needless to say this one would be rather short as well. Nancy ran me down with 3-4o from the BB vs my BTN open with A7hh on a 2-6-8hh flop. She c/c the flop, & turn came 9s giving me a straight & flush draw as well as A-high which is more than likely good here anyway. The river comes the A of clubs. She c/r on the river & I pay her gutterball off. Then I get it in a few hands later KQ vs KJ & the flop brought a J in the window. Then I decide to get back into a 2/5 NL cash game. I begin to run the show from the moment I sit down. I had owned our table, then we lose a few players & the two tightest rocks sit to my left. I decide to change tables to a more financially balanced table. Needless to say by the end of this session I end up going up & down like Rose Ballengers Graph from the Micros. I was as low as $300 & as high as $5k. By the time I got out of that game I had cashed out at $3k. The only problem is I played forever. I was dog tired. It was Sunday afternoon & I had been up since 6am Saturday morning. It was all a blur but somewhere in between in cash more than likely I dropped about $500. So I am sitting on about $2.5k & running on fumes. I’m still having difficulty figuring out where I got into the 2-5-10 pot limit Omaha game with my whole roll. I quickly ran that buy-in up to about $5k, maybe I will learn to hit & run. I have to get up from the table sometime to realize a profit. Well I didn’t & I got involved in a huge pot for almost all of my stack in a CO vs. BTN hand where I held KQ89hhss. The flop came 2-K-Qss. I c/c the BTN’s pot size bet to maintain pot control out of position & to give myself the opportunity to not bloat a pot with marginal holdings out of position but also to reevaluate the turn. The turn brought the 10d which can be a good or bad card for my hand. I made a horrible play in this spot & sometimes you have to take your bad play to learn from & become a better player. I decided to c/r by re-potting the BTN’s pot & we get it all in & decide to run it twice. I have KQ89hhss which was top 2 with a weak flush draw vs. AJXXssxx Broadway + spade redraw. I was crushed & drawing super thin. I lost both runs & that hand cost me dearly. Needless to say not only did I play bad, I made a mistake in regards to poor game selection due to lack of experience & bankroll. I guess I was taking my shot to run it up big. Greed eventually won & flattened me.

Eventually it was Monday morning & I have officially been up for over 72 hours & I was dead broke. I don’t even remember how I got back into the next game or which one it was. All I do know is it was Monday January 9th 2012 & LSU was playing Alabama in the National Championship Game in New Orleans. I was too busy napping on the couch in the tournament room to care & sweating Jeff Tims at the $550 NLHE Final table where he was playing for $25K for first. Jeff ended up busting in 4th place for what he calls peanuts for about $6K. It has been 3 days since I had slept or showered. I was completely DeGeNeD out & super disgusting. I took a shower in Jeff’s room & stayed with a buddy that had a room for the night. Wow it felt so good to get about 12+ hours of sleep. We joked that I would be good for another 3-4 days. He was about right. Now I know I played 2 sit & go’s somewhere in between all of this. I busted one on the first hand, I will spare the bad play & details. The second one I shipped outright plus half of the last longer. I had learned some valuable information on this trip when it comes to saving money. The spa was one of them. I ate, showered, had a steam room & everything I could possible imagine at my disposal for only $20/day. I was in heaven. I had the spa, was living off of comps, & working super short again but I was alive.

Tuesday night I was around the tournament room late enough to witness my good friend Michael Brawley ship the LIMIT Holdem tournament for the 2nd year in a row for just over $5k. Congratulations to you Mikey, way to go in there & defend your title. For the next two days I stayed at Mikey’s got some sleep & a few good showers. I was so refreshed. I couldn’t appreciate it enough. I was running on fumes. So a few days later Dad ships me another half a dime or so & this is the turning point of this trip. So many positive things happened to me in this trip that I truly feel it changed my life for the better. I wont go into all the boring details but I was threatened by an old man who more than likely weighs 110 soaking wet swearing he will kick my ass. For those who know me or have seen me I’m sure if it went down I don’t like his chances & secondly I am a gentle giant. It is hard to piss me off. But when it occurs 1 of 2 things will happen. I will either lose control & want to beat someone within an inch of their life or I get so angry I start to cry. Now I have NEVER hurt anyone intentionally in my life that was not self defense because I felt that my life was in danger or my safety or personal wellbeing. It is rather embarrassing to cry in public but that is how I handle anger. So this leads to probably the most mind blowing & significant conversation I had ever had in my life with my good friend Tyler Smith. Now the details of our conversation will always remain private. I hope anyone wishing to know will understand. I went from very upset & angry to on CLOUD NINE. One of the best moments of my life that I will never forget, thanks Tyler! All I know is that I lost a pot that felted me 3 hours later when I flopped a set & got run down by running quads, at least she was a beautiful woman, eye candy to say the least. The positive emotions are now flowing. I have no idea where I am at & honestly could care less. I just wanted to enjoy the moment that I was in.

It is now Friday & I have almost been here a week. I am fixing to play in the $240 12pm & after selling all my action it was time to go to registration & buy-in. There was only one problem. Someone that bought a piece was not there & I had to go borrow the money from Tyler. So I am heading down the down escalators from the convention level to the casino floor & see Michael Brawley almost to the top on the other side. I just stepped on & I am only maybe two steps down. I forgot my phone charging in the tournament room & I did not want to leave it in there. So what do I do? Instead of going 150 feet down the down escalator & up 150 feet up the up escalator I try to go back up the down escalator. Needless to say that did not work out so well. I tripped, fell, took 3 puncture wounds from the escalator to my knee, & after all 430 biscuits came down in full force I think I broke the escalator. Oh shit. I am bleeding profusely down my leg. I go to the bathroom to clean it up & then head downstairs to get money so I can register for the 12pm. I come back upstairs & register. My leg is severely injured. I should go to the hospital & forget about the tournament. Nah it can wait until I go home after the Main Event which is still a week away. I take a couple of hits early when I flop 2 pair & get run down by a better 2 pair, but I do crack a guys AA when he raises from EP with me on the BTN with KQcc. I flop a K & c/c the flop. I turn a Q & snap call his insta-shove on a K-6-X-Qhhh board. I get moved shortly thereafter & get involved in a crazy hand against Sean Small where I am in the CO vs. BTN & I 4 bet him pre with J5ss. I was making a move & unfortunately ran into a hand as well as playing it so bad. I should have never opened when folded to me pre, but then if I decided to go with my read on table dynamics I should have folded to his 3 bet. I busted that hand when I ran into his AA. I should have recognized the “Speech” pre. I paid the consequence for bad play. Lesson learned. I definitely got berated for that one, but I was going with my gut. The only problem is I made mistakes in the hand & I ran into AA. Whatchya going to do? Sometimes you play a hand bad & you lose. That’s the way life should be. We should all be held accountable. Unfortunately variance is a hard headed bitch with a one track mind.

So I am trying to shorten this blog because I don’t have the mental stamina to sit here & write about a 21+ day trip & put all the details from day to day. Maybe I will write a book. I did spend 3 days in the hospital because of my own stupidity, played horrible in tournaments, had occasional play bad & run bad in cash, but overall this trip had a life changing affect on me. It made me realize how many friends I do have & that there are a few people that genuinely care about me, which is nice to know from time to time. I met a lot of new people & made a few new friends. I had a blast & if I had to do it all over again I wouldn’t change a thing except maybe the escalator accident or going to the hospital.

In the end I was in Biloxi for 21 days, I had a room for less than 5 of them. I was so down & out in compete DeGeN mode. I have had enough. I had spent 3 days in the hospital & almost had to suffer amputation if things would have gotten worse. I was pretty bad off in a super tough spot that I put myself in. I was attempting to succeed in a manner in which I was only destined to fail.

I did have the pleasure on this trip of meeting Rita & Larry Little the parents of Jonathan Little from Pensacola Beach Florida. I will have an interview coming out soon on Jonathan so stay tuned & thanks for reading.