by Scott Ian
Poker-face Ace crushes me. Courtesy Lisa Tenner.
Revenge of the ducks! Courtesy Lisa Tenner.
Vinnie Paul was the first player to get knocked out of the tournament, his three and six of spades (3s6s) flush draw falling short against Ace’s A10.
One by one the other players got knocked out of the game, Sully doing most of the knocking. He busted Dusty Hill, his pair of jacks holding up against Dusty’s A4. Dusty had been using a ZZ Top keychain as his card protector. Players will put a good luck charm on top of their cards during a hand so they don’t accidentally get pushed into the muck in the middle of the table. It was one of the ZZ Top key chains from all the famous videos they made. When Sully busted Dusty he won the keychain as well. Lucky.
Then Sully busted one of the online players named Rob. Sully made a straight on the turn. Bye Rob. Sully was running good.
The tournament was five handed now. Over the next few hours I was quietly hanging around under the radar, picking my spots, my stack of chips steadily growing. Then this key hand happened.
I’m going to use a bit more shorthand—it’s not too difficult to follow.
FYI:
s = spade, c = club, d = diamond, h = heart, A = ace, K = king, Q = queen, J = jack, os = off suit
Blinds: The blinds are forced bets posted by players to the left of the dealer button in flop-style poker games. The player to the left of the dealer button places the small blind and the big blind is then posted by the next player to the left.
Ante: a forced bet in which all players put an equal amount of money or chips into the pot before the deal begins.
Button: the dealer button is a marker used to indicate the player who is dealing or in casino games with a house dealer, the player who acts last on that deal (who would be the dealer in a home game).
The blinds were $500/$1,000 with a $100 ante. I have 810c in the big blind. Online guy Ian has Ad3h and goes all-in with his last $200. Sully calls with Ah7c. I check. Sully says, “Ya wanna check it down?” The flop comes 7sJd10s. The action is on me, and I bet $2,000. Sully calls. The 6h comes on the turn. Sully checks. Phil Hellmuth says, “Sully wants to check it down to get rid of a player.” I didn’t know what check it down meant. It means Sully and I would agree to not bet, just check all the way to the end of the hand, and then we all turn over our cards to see who won, usually ending with the all-in player getting knocked out. I bet $2,000 again. Phil says, “I like Scott’s bet. He flopped middle pair with a straight draw, and he has the best hand.” Sully is staring at me with a curious half-smile, trying to read my face, looking for info, and says, “Look at me. Do you know I have the ZZ Top keychain?” as he dangles it in front of my face. I smiled back at him, revealing nothing, only saying, “Yeah, I want it.” Phil, commenting on the action, says, “Sully wants to check it down and get rid of a player, but Scott’s doing the right thing.” Finally Sully folds to my bet. Online guy Ian needs an ace on the river to make a pair and beat my pair of tens. There are only two aces left in the deck. “He’s a twenty-to-one underdog. There are forty winning cards for Scott and only two for Ian,” Phil notes. The jack of hearts comes on the river, and I take it down. I won a big pot, and I’m now the chip leader. More importantly I learned that if I got aggressive with Sully, it messed with his game. It seemed like he didn’t think I could play aggressively. So I bust online player Ian, and there are now only four of us left. I have $44,400 in chips, Sully has $16,400, Ace has $15,600, and the remaining online player, Steve, has $3,600.
My goal then was to make it to the end no matter what, even if I had one chip and a chair, as they say. Now I was the chip leader. Could I hold on to my stack as well as I was able to rebuild my short stack? A few hands after I took the lead I got involved in a hand with Sully and online player Steve.
The blinds were $600/$1,200 with a $100 ante. Online player Steve limps in, Sully with A9os calls, and I check in the big blind with J2os. The flop comes AhJdAd. Sully checks his set (three-of-a-kind, remember?). I check. Online player Steve goes all-in for his last $2,200. Sully bets $6,000 like he should, trying to get me to fold so he’s only up against online player Steve. That’s a tactic I learned months after this game. Not knowing what to do and thinking my two pairs were good, I raise $12,000. Somewhere in my brain I was thinking Sully was trying to bluff me, acting like he had an ace in his hand. The pot had suddenly blown up to over $24,000. I should’ve folded to Sully’s raise; I only had my big blind of $1,200 in the pot, and I could have walked away virtually unscathed. Nope. Sully goes all-in, $32,600 in the pot now. Sully tells me, “If you have the other ace, you win.” Now I have over $13,000 in the pot, and it’s only another $6,000 to $7,000 to call Sully’s all-in. I was reeling. Was Sully bluffing? Or maybe I do have the best hand. I had to make a decision, and because I am not Charles Xavier, I called. Online player Steve guy had a diamond flush and tripled up. Sully won the big side pot. I lose, and just like that, Sully takes the chip lead.
Can you feel my stress level? I have zero poker knowledge to be able to make the decisions I am being tested with. I am not used to being in a situation where I have nothing to fall back on to help me get through, and suddenly I’m really feeling out of my element. Having the chip lead made me want to win. Before that I was just trying not to be the first guy out. The competitive dude in my brain suddenly woke up. I had tasted blood and wanted more.
The next hand blinds are still $600/$1,200 with a $100 ante. Online player Steve limps with pocket twos. I call with 6h9h. Ace checks his big blind with 10d5s. The flop is 2c5h6s. I have top pair. There’s $4,400 in the pot. I check. Ace checks. Online player Steve bets $1,500. I call. Ace calls. Now the pot is $8,900. The turn card is the 4c. I check. Ace checks. Online player Steve bets $4,000, and not knowing what to do, I say in desperation, “What do I do, Phil?” I can’t hear Phil explaining, “Scott should fold. If he had played another week or two of poker in his life, he’d be able to fold top pair, but being an amateur in this spot makes it very hard to do.” He’s right about that. Phil continues, “Look at Scott. He is sensing something about the hand, and he wants to fold, but I can’t blame him for calling. Look at the process he’s going through. He even made the comment that ‘If I lose this pot, I won’t have enough chips to play Sully heads up for the title.’ He’s in a tough spot.”
I called the $4,000. I couldn’t fold it. The pot is now up to $16,900. Ace calls; he should’ve folded as well. The pot is $20,900. The river card is the Kh. I check, and Ace goes all-in! “Bad time to bluff, Ace,” Phil says as Ace’s pair of fives are no match for online player Steve’s set of twos. It’s $5,600 for me to call, and now I fold. Phil says, “Good lay down” about my fold. Online player Steve wins the hand, and Ace is decimated. I just lost 30 percent of my chips, and I’m now down to just ten big blinds, my recent glory of being chip leader now a distant memory as I struggle to keep it together. I decided I would just keep my head down for a few hands, really tighten up, and only play really premium hands, QQ, KK, and AA. The cards made my decisions easy for a few hands: I was dealt nothing but crap and was able to calm down. I realized that any remnants of not sleeping or being drunk from the night before were gone. The five or six Bloody Marys I put down may as well have been virgins. I was truly adrenalized on poker.
The blinds were up to $800/$1,600 with a $200 ante. I was getting close to shove-or-fold territory again, and then I caught a break. Ace was all-in for his last $700 with 10d4s. Online player Steve calls with Q10s. Sully raises $4,500 with AA. I can’t fold fast enough. Insta-fold. Online player Steve calls. I’m hoping Sully busts both of them. The flop is 9s3d7s. Sully bets $10,000—go Sully! Steve has a spade flush draw, and he goes all-in. Sully insta-calls—there’s $67,100 in the pot! I say, “Thankfully I have no part of this!” The turn card is the Kc, and the 3c comes on the river. Online player Steve bricks, and Sully’s aces hold and he busts both of them.
And just like that, it was down to two.
Sully takes tw
o. Courtesy Lisa Tenner.
I did it! Somehow I had outlasted everyone else, playing so very carefully that I was able to navigate the tournament to the final level. I was heads-up with Sully, the best player in the tournament. Granted, I was in bad shape chip-wise. Of the $80,000 in chips in play, Sully had $65,000; I had $15,000. He had an over four-to-one chip advantage, and the odds were heavily, crushingly, monumentally, overwhelmingly—is that enough adverbs? I think not, so here’s one more—brutally in his favor. Even I didn’t think I could win. No one did. I could hear Antonio and Phil talking with Phil Hellmuth (I didn’t even really know who he was yet, just that he was a big deal), and they were saying how Sully had me crushed and there was no way I could beat him with him holding such an advantage over me in chips and experience. Sully was a seasoned player, I was the definition of rank amateur, and the pros had already written me off, the outcome a foregone conclusion.
Man, were they in for a shock.
Our tournament director, Matt Savage, repositioned me and Sully at the table for heads-up play. We had been sitting next to each other the whole tournament, talking a lot, busting balls. Now we were at either end of the table, across from the dealer, ready to do battle to the death—or until one of us had all the chips. Okay, here we go.
Here’s the poker glossary for you again so you have it right in front of you:
s = spade, c = club, d = diamond, h = heart, A = ace, K = king, Q = queen, J = jack, os = off suit
Blinds: The blinds are forced bets posted by players to the left of the dealer button in flop-style poker games. The player to the left of the dealer button places the small blind and the big blind is then posted by the next player to the left.
Ante: a forced bet in which all players put an equal amount of money or chips into the pot before the deal begins.
Button: the dealer button is a marker used to indicate the player who is dealing or in casino games with a house dealer, the player who acts last on that deal (who would be the dealer in a home game).
Heads-up for the championship! Here are the decisive hands as they went down.
The blinds were $1,000/$2,000 with a $300 ante. Sully just calls with Qh2s. I check 10s3s. The flop is 7dQs6s. Sully has top pair, and I have a flush draw. I bet $4,000, which is almost as much as there is in the pot. I was trying to be aggressive and bet big to get him to fold his hand. Phil says, “Scott doesn’t have many chips left, only seven big blinds. I can see them getting all-in here.” Mark Tenner says, “This is Sully’s tournament to lose.” Phil comments, “Sully has top pair, and he pretty much knows he has the best hand, so if he doesn’t move it all-in here, it’s only because he’s trying to trap Scott for the rest of his chips.” Sully calls the $4,000. The turn card is the 4c. Now I have a straight draw and a flush draw. I bet $3,000. The right move would be to go all-in at this point, but I was scratching and clawing, trying to hold onto enough chips to play one more hand. It was so intense in the moment, and even later watching the TV broadcast and knowing the outcome I feel nervous watching myself! Sully says, “I’ll put ya’ all-in,” which means if I call him, it would put me all-in and my tournament life at risk. “Yeah, let’s go for it!” I yell. There’s $27,600 in the pot. Sully is a three-to-one favorite to win the hand and take the title. I need a spade!!! The dealer deals the river card, and it is the 8s, and I make my flush and pump both fists in the air exclaiming, “YEAHHHHHH!” Phil exclaimed, “Scott has doubled up and is back in it! Scott is back, baby!”
Nailed it! Love that river card. Left to right: Sully, tournament director extraordinaire Matt Savage, and me, doing my best Ben Grimm, “IT’S CLOBBERIN’ TIME!” Courtesy Lisa Tenner.
Chip count: Sully $48,200. Me $31,800. Courtesy Lisa Tenner.
We play a bunch of quick hands; Sully raises and I fold. I raise and Sully folds. I have an ace the last two hands I raise. Amazingly I’m dealt Ad3d, three aces in a row heads-up. I’m really catching cards. This time I just call after raising the last two and getting no action from Sully. Sully checks in the big blind with 7h4c. The flop comes Ah5d7s. Wow. I pair my ace. Do you know how hard it is to make a pair on the flop in poker? It’s hard. Phil chimes in, “It looks to me like it’s going to work out pretty well for Scott because he’s flopped top pair and Sully has flopped second pair. They’re playing one-on-one poker now, and second pair is a pretty strong hand, and I have a feeling Sully can get himself in trouble now unless he hits a seven or a four.”
Running good. Courtesy Lisa Tenner.
Sully acts first and checks. I bet $5,000. Sully puts his head down in what looks like frustration. Mark Tenner comments, “Sully is a little bit down. The hands have not been going his way.” Sully takes a minute, maybe he’s thinking I am making a move on him, and then he check-raises $15,000 with his pair of sevens. Phil comments, “And Sully is going to make the raise. I like the raise. Of course if he could see Scott’s hand Sully could fold his hand but he doesn’t know what Scott has. He’s made a nice raise here. It’s a good play.” It’s $10,000 more for me to call. I think my pair of aces are good. I’m not thinking that he could also have an ace with a better kicker, meaning a card higher than a three. Phil says, “Scott should’ve put all his money in right there. If he’s calling $10,000, he should shove all-in now.” Of course that would be the right move, but I just call the $10,000. Phil says, “There’s a lot of inexperience here. Scott hasn’t played much poker before, but he’s really picking this game up on the fly. You really have to give him credit.” The turn card is the Jd. Now I have top pair and a diamond flush draw. Sully checks. Again, I don’t know that all-in is the right move—Phil and Mark are practically yelling at me to put all my money in! I only bet $4,000. Sully calls. There’s $42,600 in the pot. The Jc comes on the river. Sully checks and I check! SO BAD. I should’ve bet the river, but I was so paranoid about losing chips that I was playing way too safe. What if he had AJ? I take down a nice pot, but I should’ve gotten more. I’m the chip leader now. Phil says, “That was a key pot right there, and the fact that Scott just called with an ace before the flop threw Sully off and cost him an extra $19,000.” It’s not like I made some premeditated move; I didn’t know I was supposed to raise. As Bob Ross would say, “There are no mistakes, just happy accidents.”
Chip count: Me $61,200. Sully $18,800. Courtesy Lisa Tenner.
I can tell Sully is starting to crack. He’s talking a lot, complaining about his cards. Mark Tenner says, “Phil, your protégé is whining just like you!” Phil replied, “Are you saying I whine too much at the table?” “Yes, you’re the Poker Brat,” Mark answered. Phil said, “Ya got me! What can I say? I wouldn’t be much of a man if I didn’t admit to my faults.” I learned later that Phil Hellmuth’s nickname was the Poker Brat because of the tantrums he’d throw at the table when he didn’t like the way a hand played out or how the game was going. He was very passionate! I just kept my cool and commiserated with Sully. I wasn’t going to kick him while he was down. I’m not a shit-talker ever when it comes to sports or competing. That karma will always come back and get ya.
The heads-up play continues; the blinds have gone up to $1,200/$2,400 with a $400 ante. I look down at A3 again! Just like the last hand except this time it’s spades. Another ace! Unbelievable. I just call again. That seems to be working for me. Sully checks his 10s3c. The flop is 7d7hJd. Sully says, “I’ll bet that.” He bets $4,000. Mark Tenner says, “He’s on a stone-cold bluff.” I call. Phil says, “Here’s the problem with playing against an amateur: Sully made a nice bet there, a stone-cold bluff actually, and Scott called him with ace high right away. Ace high is just not that strong of a hand, but then again, Scott was right.” Sully said, “You always get a piece of that flop, don’t ya?” I just shrugged, playing it cool, and started to realize that he’s off his game; he doesn’t know how to play against whatever it is I am doing, so I’ll just keep doing it. Turn is the 6d, Sully checks, and Mark comments, “Sully couldn’t fire the second bullet.” Meaning he didn
’t want to bet again and continue trying to bluff me. I bet $4,000, what Phil calls “a semi-bluff,” and Sully folds. Phil says, “And Sully can’t believe it. He’s thinking Scott can’t always have a hand. Well, guess what?” Mark says, “Scott is now controlling this game for sure, and with Lady Luck on his side, he has taken a commanding lead.”
Chip count: Me $68,600. Sully $11,400. Courtesy Lisa Tenner.
Mark comments, “Scott knows how Sully felt just a little while ago. Sully needs some of that Scott Ian luck. He needs to win three hands in a row, big confrontations to win this tournament.”
The cards are out on the next hand, and I look down at Ac8d. A8—the dead man’s hand! According to legend it’s the hand Wild Bill Hickock was holding when he was shot to death in the middle of a game. I’ve always loved numbers like thirteen that are considered bad luck so to me, the A8 is a good omen. And just a quick flash-forward: it’ll only be a little over two years from this moment that I’d be opening a bar called Dead Man’s Hand in Las Vegas with Jerry Cantrell from Alice in Chains.
Back to the hand. I am first to act, and I just call again. Phil says, “Scott limps with an ace again! He keeps limping with an ace he should be raising!” Sully immediately goes all-in with Qs5s. I call! I could see the look on Sully’s face when I instantly call: he’s not happy. I’m sure he was hoping to shove and have me fold. Now I have Sully on the hook: all of his chips are in the middle, and his tournament life is on the line. Mark says, “This is the big one. If the best starting hand wins, Scott wins.” Sully says, “It’s not pretty,” commenting on his queen-high hand against my ace. Sully and I are both standing up, waiting for the flop to be dealt. Phil says, “Scott looks like a boxer out there!” I was jumping up and down like I was skipping rope at boxing training, trying to stay loose and not throw up from nerves! The flop is Kc8s4c. I pair my eight, and I’ve only got to fade (avoid) a queen (only three left) or Sully making runner-runner (two in a row) spades for a flush.
