101 replies to this topic

[Bizzle]

When they don't involve name pros and Playboy bunnies.

[gatortom64]

Pointing out the obvious is just poor etiquette!!!!

[Dogpatch]

He can say he got fucked by Annie Duke and Shannon Elizabeth in the Mansion... classic!

[Ouch-8s]

puke puke puke

[TR1N1TY]

from Terrence Chans blog..




This was certainly a poker tournament with a story, but not for the reasons I was expecting. Pictures of the Playboy Mansion will come soon -- please be patient, my loyal readership.

So, the Playboy Mansion is really cool. You see these places on TV and figure they probably aren't as cool as you see on TV, but the Mansion actually is. Of course, they make it sound like there's bunnies and Playmates (what's the difference between a Bunny and a Playmate, anyway?) hopping and prancing around everywhere, which really isn't the case, but they hired a few token human silicone statues to wander around and make it look good enough.

The bus left from the hotel around 5:15, and there was a very lengthy and messy off-site registration process, so we didn't get in the mansion until about 7:00. The poker tournament started shortly after the scheduled start time of 8:00. Of course, everyone expected an extremely fast structure. I was ready to play pretty much jam-or-fold almost the whole way, and prepared to bust out really early. In fact, the tournament started with 2500 chips and 100-200 blinds. The blinds went up every 15 minutes, often doubling (or more). They had some ridiculous rebuy system which was something like $500 for 1000 chips. Again, charity, it's all good, yada yada.

In fact, I probably mind the silly structure less than most "serious" poker players because I figure I play jam-or-fold as well or better than pretty much anyone in the room. Of course, playing properly means you have to be ready to go out on any given hand, and in fact, I was all-in (though on the flop) on the the first hand. Everyone limped, I limped with Q9 on the button, the flop came JTx, all checked and I jammed.

Shortly thereafter, the blinds went up to 200-400. I jammed in late position with A8, Phil Laak called with AK, I spiked an 8 and busted him. That was the beginning of a huge rush. After I collected a few more scalps, Adam was moved to my table -- two to my left -- with just as many chips. Both of us were looking for a huge confrontation when I moved in from two off the button with AT and he instantly called me...with ATs! I faded the freeroll and eventually was moved off the table.

The rush continues, and the next thing I knew, I was up to 100,000 chips at two tables (of the original approximately 25 tables), and was chip leader by a lot (with about 220k) when we broke for the final table.

At the final table I lost what I am deeming tongue-in-cheek a Swedish coinflip: TT vs. 96o, versus a Swedish (duh ) guy named William who looked familiar but couldn't place. That took me down to about 100k, but I got a lot of it back when I pushed with 55 and was called by 33. We got down to four-handed between myself, Shannon Elizabeth, Steve Dannenmann and another random guy in a black shirt.

This is when things started taking a turn for the truly bizarre. The TD now came over to us and told us that we had to be out of the room in 20 minutes. He doubled the blinds to 12k/24k or something like that. After a few more hands without a bustout, he then announced the blinds would double every hand. A few more hands later the panicked TD announced that we would not play the tournament to the end! The button was on Shannon, and he announced that on Shannon's next button, we would stop the tournament and call the results by chip count! Not chop the prizes by chip count, mind you, but if you had one chip more than second, you were first. That's fair, don't you think!?

So the prizes were listed on the website as follows:

1st: 2 WSOP main event seats plus hotel and junk
2nd: A US Open golf package
3rd: 51" TV

I was second in chips behind Dannenmann when this announcement was made. On the first hand, Shannon Elizabeth pushed into the black shirt guy. A9 for Shannon, AQ for black shirt, but two 9s hit the flop and Shannon consolidates the two stacks. Now I'm in third. This is where it really starts getting bad. Shannon looks around and realizes that her and Dannenmann are #1 and #2 and tells Dannenman to fold every hand. Dannenman, for the record, is not three but about eight sheets to the wind. He has been more or less on a 3-hour alcohol IV and drunk out of his mind. Annie Duke has been sitting immediately behind him for the entire final table telling him what to do on a number of hands ("you have to call"/"automatic call", that kind of thing). Annie assesses the situation and tells him the same thing as Shannon, that he should fold every hand and collude against me. Which is okay, you know, because Shannon Elizabeth and Steve Dannenmann are celebrities and therefore matter. Who gives a **** about the random guy no one knows or cares about?

Dannenmann is so drunk that he actually is considering playing but Annie is in his office constantly telling him to fold. I push in every hand, of course, but I can't catch Dannenmann. On Shannon's button, the TD stops the tournament as announced, and we count up the chips. Shannon has us easily covered at maybe 400k, Dannenmann has 221k and I have 208k. A lousy 13k separates us, and thus I get the third place prize. So I am pretty much equity-****ed as hard as it gets by a combination of Shannon Elizabeth's cheating, Annie Duke's mouth, and the poor planning and problem resolution of the people running the event.

Now before I go off too much I want to say a few things. First off, yes, this is a charity tournament. Secondly, the amount of money involved, thankfully, isn't too much to me. If it weren't for these two things, I would be a lot more pissed than I am. I think I'm really taking this well, and I don't think I'm too biased because Adam, Mike, Gun and all the other people who were there supporting me where way more animated about this than I was. I'm really trying hard to keep in perspective that it's all for charity.

But at the same time, "it's for charity" can't be the only defence for such a debacle. There have been charity lotteries, draws, tournaments and so forth for a long time now. When you announce prizes, you have to pay them out. If you run a poker tournament, you don't change the rules with four hands to go and make it completely impossible for one person to win the tournament. When you do these kinds of things, it makes all such charity events look bad. I started out with the idea that I would have some fun at the Mansion, have a longshot for a WSOP seat, and raise some money for a good cause. Instead I have a bad taste in my mouth and in my opinion this tournament gave itself a black eye. Except no one will care, because I'm a nobody, and it looks good to have Shannon Elizabeth as the official champion.

I also assign no blame to Steve Dannenmann. He really did nothing wrong aside from not telling Annie to FOAD. He was drunk out of his mind, and alcohol makes people pliable. That said, I have no doubt that if he did not have Annie in his corner, he probably would not have realized the situation he was in. I have a bit of a problem with Shannon, as she clearly violated the rules and did something that in the poker world is extremely unethical. However I cannot fully condemn her because she is new to the game, not a serious long-time player and may not have known better.

The person I have a real problem with in all of this is Annie Duke. Annie Duke has been playing poker a lot longer than I have, and I learned very early on in my poker career that sitting two feet away from someone and telling him what to do on specific hands is illegal and immoral. "One player to a hand" is something that every poker player learns very early on in their poker careers, and it's absolutely shocking to me that someone as experienced as her, a bonafide poker celebrity in the public eye, would blatantly break this rule and think there's nothing wrong with it.

Obviously, I feel the people running the tournament should have made an attempt to curtail this behaviour. With respect to the decision to end the tournament, here's how I feel. While the TD's arm was twisted by the time constraint, I think most people can agree there are better ways to handle this. The event organizers have to do a better job of budgeting time. But again, I do keep in mind that this was a charity tournament. And I will say one more thing about the organizers: they can easily make this right to me by awarding me a WSOP seat (or even say, 75% of a seat). I will reserve judgment on this and consider everything forgiven if when I talk to these people on Monday I get a WSOP seat out of this.

Otherwise, I will consider myself screwed out of a few thousand dollars by a combination of the organizers, Shannon Elizabeth and Annie Duke. And that to me is a really unfortunate result of a tournament that is supposed to do some good things for a worthy cause.

[Pot Odds RAC]

Everyone's got something to complain about.

[FCP Bob]

I merged the two threads.

[Wandigo]

I merged the two threads.

[FileError404]

I can't understand why Terrence didn't throw a fit there. I certainly would have. I mean, one word from the rail, Duke or not, I would've complaint and told the dealer/TD to run the game properly. And when Shannon starts colluding I would've just straight up told her to shut up and play by the rules.
Now he complains? A few days later? Makes no sense to me.

[scottyno]

oops, i made another thread about this because you can't tell based on the thread name what this one is about

[Bizzle]

I liked my old title better.

[NoSup4U]

Good read, interesting stuff.

Mark

[donk4life]

hmm shannon elizabeth with bunny ears..

[cubsfan44]

I completely agree with fileerror why did he not throw a fit when it was happening.

[Royal_Tour]

shannon elizabeth is a doosh.

she's loaded and she makes a stupid comment about folding everyhand against him.

I'd punch her in the ovaries for that

[Adam Schwartz]

I completely agree with fileerror why did he not throw a fit when it was happening.

I was standing behind him and did say something to the TD but it was ignored. I also said something to the effect of one player to a hand loud enough for all to hear and was ignored by the table as well. Terrence was trying to figure out what was going on with the change in structure. The table was also as loud and chaotic as any ive ever seen. After all, it was a charity event and to stand up and scream "your cheating" at the top of his lungs would probably have been viewed as looking like a total whiner.

Adam.

[gatortom64]

shannon elizabeth is a doosh.

she's loaded and she makes a stupid comment about folding everyhand against him.

I'd punch her in the ovaries for that

From the inside?

[showstopper24]

Madsen, Tilly, Laak...also there

[dapokerbum]

Let's say that you were in the same situation as AD. You see a friend of yours who is maybe going to make it to the WSOP main event. He is a poker player so he obviously like to play and you notice that because the TD said the tourney was going to finish in X amount of hands that if he folds he will make it. Now knowing your friend likes to play poker and mixed with how drunk he is you see that he will probably still play and most likely finish in 3rd. So you kindly tell him that hey you should fold every hand to make sure you make it to the WSOP and don't worry anymore about this tourney. He says yeah that's a great idea and you are stoked that your friend has now made it to the WSOP.

I don't know about you but in a charity tourney with that on the line I might have done the same thing as AD.

Just Sayin...

[doox]

I've watched Shannon play online, and I was entirely unimpressed. She has no concept of "M" and will whittle off her stack by limping in for 400 when she has 1800 left.