Day 2

For the first half hour of day 2 I didn't win a single pot, tensed up a little and became dispirited. I knew I had plenty of chips and hadn't done anything wrong, but couldn't snap out of it until I finally picked up K K and J J on subsequent hands. It's amazing how much winning even a small pot or two will lift your spirits.

The hand of the day came right after the first break. In early position, I make a speculative (as opposed to value) raise with the 10 8 of clubs and get called by both blinds. The big blind hesitates for just a moment, apparently contemplating a raise. The flop comes As Qc Jc, not at all what I was hoping for but giving me a two-way straight draw (either a K or a 9 makes me straight) and a flush draw. Both players check to me, I bet 4300, the small blind folds but the big blind raises to 11,000. This is already a large pot and we've got lots more betting to come. My draw is strong enough that re-raising is an option, but I feel very strongly that my opponent won't fold. In fact, I suspect from the fact that he thought about re-raising before the flop that he has either two Jacks or Ace Queen, neither of which I would be able to get him to fold. So I'm better off calling, and trying not to go broke on the hand if I miss my draws.

The turn is the 2 of hearts, a complete miss for me. Now he bets 16,200 and I have 38,000 left. Similar logic argues against a raise here. I have enough outs to call but if the river is another blank I will only have 22,000 left. The last card is the King of Spades and I make the straight! My opponent clearly doesn't like this card, but he's not folding his hand and can't really expect me to have a ten here (I wouldn't put this much money in with A 10 and I would have reraised on the turn with K 10.) He moves all in and I gladly call. Just as I suspected, he has three jacks and instead of 22,000 I am stacking a pot with over 100,000 in chips!

I'm in poker heaven briefly, as I'm already where I hoped to end the day and we've got lots of poker left. I try to press my luck a little and spew about fifteen thousand chips. I tighten up and slow the slide, but a half an hour before dinner I am down to 55,000, feeling out of synch, tired, and discouraged. I find myself glancing at the clock every two minutes, longing for a chance to regroup.

The dinner break is wonderfully restorative. We race back to Caesar's, where my friend Rainbow has generously arrived early to reserve us a table at Rao's, his favorite Italian restaurant. I order and race back to the room to shower. I shave, shampoo, change my hairstyle and replace all of my unlucky clothes with new ones, including my favorite flashy shirt.

Dana has taught me a little EMDR and a little bilateral stimulation completes my mood change. A couple of small early postprandial pots and I am a new man. A large pot develops when the button raises to 2000 and I look down in the big blind to a pair of tens. I re-raise to 7000. He thinks, pauses, and makes it 17,000, leaving himself about 38000. I do not like this raise at all and am wishing I'd just called instead. Before folding, I take my time and think for a while. Finally, acting on a very dangerous impulse, I re-re-raise enough to put him all in. If he calls and I lose, I will have only 20,000 left. He thinks for a long time and folds. (In discussing this with my friends later, we think his most likely hands are two jacks or ace queen. If he folded Ace Queen, he's making a medium-sized mistake; if he folded two jacks, he had an 82% chance of winning!)

Finally, the night is over. I convince a couple of the players at my table to head up to the Voodoo Lounge. After that, my friend Bill Phipps calls, and I head over to the Bellagio at 1:00 a.m. to meet up with him, his girlfriend, and his poker celebrity friends, "Unabomber" Phil Laak and his girlfriend, actress Jennifer Tilly. Jennifer has just won $120,000 in a Bellagio poker tournament and is flying high. I ask her for a one-minute tournament summary and she talks in detail about poker hands for twelve minutes, somewhat bugging Phil, who's probably heard this all several times before.