WPT Battle for the Season Pass III - Day 2
After yesterday’s fiasco, Donna and I both slept like rocks. We woke around 8:30 am. Our first “meeting” was to get to Orientation at 10:00. So, off to the breakfast buffet we went, and after eating, we made our way over to the conference room. We got cell phones and an internet card and all was good. The debacle from yesterday was now a memory (but recent one). The Battle for the Season Pass was on.
For orientation, they explained how things work and what the schedule was going to be. For today, there were going to be live learning labs (more on this below), and a single table tournament for everybody. The winner of the single table tournaments were to receive a free “excursion” of their choice. There were about 10 excursions to choose from. Most were priced around $100, so it was a neat little freeroll. During the orientation, Ron Rubens (WPT Bootcamp president) asked who had NOT been to a boot camp, and who HAD been to a bootcamp. The room was split about 50/50. Curious, he had the people who had previously attended a bootcamp to stand up. So, I did. Then he asked only those people who have been to TWO bootcamps to remain standing. A lot of people sat down. Then, he asked only those people who have been to three bootcamps to remain standing. I think there were maybe 10 of us. Ron was surprised and then asked only people who have attended four or more to remain standing. At that juncture, only three of us remained - and I was one of them. Ron then asked everybody to give us a round of applause. In actuality, this is my SIXTH bootcamp. I have attended the 2-day tournament camp, 3-day tournament camp, the cash camp, and now, ALL THREE battle for the Season Pass tournaments. :) Anyway, back to the story. . .
After orientation, we all made our way to the casino and settled into our tables for the live learning labs. As I walked in, a couple friends of mine, who I know from previous camps, yelled out that they saved me a seat at their table! Wow, how nice was that!
I knew what to expect in the Live Labs as I have been to many bootcamps before. I absolutely LOVE these things. They are the BEST learning tool that I have ever seen. Here is how they work. A pro is seated at your table and everybody has chips. The pro then deals the cards and you play the hand out. If you fold your cards, you are asked to keep them in front of you. After the hand is completed, everybody turns their cards face-up and the pro critiques the play. The REAL neat thing about this is that every 45 minutes, the pros rotate, so you get to hear viewpoints from DIFFERENT pros, which obviously incorporates their playing style.
Our first pro was the 1984 WSOP main event champion Tom McEvoy. Tom was a fairly conservative player who corrected you if you played bad cards out of position. After Tom, came Kenna James. Kenna is a lot of fun.
He immediately looked around and said, “I recognize a lot of you from past bootcamps.” We replied that we had hand-picked this table to be only “good players”.
Kenna responded with, “Good, I will hold nothing back then. I am going to rip your play to shreads!” (in a good manner). He did just that. He held nothing back! He was downright obnoxious a few times (but that is meant in a good way - he was actually being that way to make a point and trying to teach us a few points). He re-iterated a few points in my game that have been lacking recently. This was a great refresher and got me focused on the all-important question of, “What is the situation so far in this hand?” Along the way, several people (including me) made a side-bet with Kenna. The bet was simply whether a pro will or will NOT make the final table of the main tournament this week. I bet him $100 that a pro would NOT make the final table. I will need to wait until Saturday to hopefully collect on this bet.
Live Learning labs cannot last long enough, but lunch time was here. After lunch, we were back in the casino to continue with more labs. First out of the gate for us was WPT Champion Hoyt Corkins. I did not recognize Hoyt because he was wearing a baseball cap and NOT his trademark cowboy hat. Anyway, Hoyt was a very soft-spoken and kind man. After Hoyt came WPT 2005 player of the year Gavin Smith. If you know anything about Gavin’s play, you know he is pretty loose-aggressive. His commentary reflected that style in his play….
I picked up several nice tidbits during the Live Learning Labs. I was again very happy. These things are so situation-specific and are GREAT learning tools.
After the labs, we were all assigned seats for the single table tournaments. I looked up my location, and I was at table 3, seat 3. The pros were also invited to play in the sit and gos. They were spread out as to have one pro per table. My pro? 2004 WSOP runner-up Dave Williams - and he was two positions to my left. All in all, this was a good place to have him. Dave was a pretty nice guy and personable, so I had to ask him how they paid him after his second place finish in the WSOP main event. He said that they will give you cash, chips, or a check. He said that he took a check, and when he got it, the check was HAND WRITTEN. He then went home and deposited it into the bank, where the teller thought it was a joke. He convinced the teller to deposit the check, and the teller said, “You do know that there will be a hold on this $3.8 million check!” We all got a chuckle out of that and he did say that it was a true story.
I finished 4th in the Sit and Go (lasted longer than Dave Williams).
The rest of the night was pretty uneventful. Donna won $650 in a 25 cent slot machine, then won $500 playing 3 card poker.
Tomorrow (Tuesday) we have completely OFF. There is nothing going on with the camp. Donna and I are planning on going scuba diving. There is also a “warm-up” tournament with a buy-in of $340. You get 5000 chips with 30 minute levels at 4pm. I have not decided if I am going to play in this or not. I guess it depends on what we do in the afternoon.