Ever since I first started playing poker, I have quite often risked all the money I have to my name on one hand. Sometimes it has gone well, sometimes it has gone bad. I got third in a WSOP event for like $230k in 2008. I was staked but had a good deal, so I got like 65 percent of it myself. I’d been notoriously bad with money, up a million-ish from poker since I started playing in 2007, with pretty much nothing to show for it besides a piece of land worth like $100k and a bunch of silver.
Anyone who knows me knows I drink way too much and am pretty stupid with money. I got the entire $230k in cash, walked up to my backer’s room, gave him around $100k, then walked back downstairs with the rest of the cash on me. I had gotten pretty drunk at the final table, doing 12 Jagerbombs, and I was sort of tilted because first place was over $500k, which was probably 10x my roll at that point.
The Copenhagen Disaster
My friend loaned me $2k at EPT Copenhagen in 2008. I quickly ran it up to $20k-ish playing against over-aggro Northern Euro PLO players simply by check-calling postflop. So of course I did the only logical thing: I moved up to a game where I could play 500 big blinds deep with $20k.
The game went well at first. I got up to about $30k. Then I got into a hand where I had raised to about $150 up front with 6432 double suited. I get a caller; another guy makes it like $600-ish. I reraise to $1,100, and he reraises to like $5k. He was over 40; his range was strictly one hand. We both have about $30k in front.
Flop comes 226. Jackpot! I check, he pots, I push, and he calls. He doesn’t flip his cards, and of course an ace turns. I felt disgusted and wanted to cry. At the showdown, I say twos full of sixes. He makes me show, then shows his aces. I nearly choked him. Pushed my chips on the floor instead of to him and left. I couldn’t pay my room bill and had to be put on a payment plan.
From Broke to Glory
In 2009, despite having $400k-ish in live cash and $300k-plus in MTT profit online, I was flat broke. All bank accounts overdrawn. I was living at home midway through the WSOP after spending the entire summer homeless. I got a friend to loan me 50 dollars at Stars on a Friday night. I played some 12-player and $2.20 180s. Won some, lost some, and ended up with like 60 dollars after like 50 SNGs.
The next night I borrowed 20 bucks from my mom and went drinking. The next morning I woke up at like 6am at my friend’s house, 45 miles away, with a good feeling about poker. I made him take me home. I was on like two hours of sleep and still drunk, but I just had a feeling I needed to play.
I instantly started playing $4.40, $2.20, and $3.30 rebuys to the Sunday Warm-Up. Won a warm-up seat, maybe two. Proceeded to play the Warm-Up and a bunch of micros till I had no money left. The account read $0.17, but I was in the money in the warm-up, so I was happy. I got all-in preflop with aces versus the two other chip leaders, who both had ace-king with 130 left, and boom, shipped the chip lead. I only lost the chip lead for less than 10 hands and shipped the Warm-Up for $130k-ish, a month after being legitimately homeless.
The $230K Bender
But I’ve sidetracked from my original story of degenerating after winning $230k. Of that, I got like $130-ish. Remind you that I was drunk at the time of winning it. Like, doing 12 Jagerbombs at the final table drunk. So the first thing I do is go to the bar. $130k in cash in my pockets, hands, and sweatshirt. I got completely blackout drunk and drove home.
I woke up in the morning and had no idea where any of the cash was. I panicked and started texting friends. No one had a clue. I went and looked in my car, and there was literally money covering the floors. Nothing in bands, just money laying everywhere. I counted it, and it was like $115k. Lost a bit, only like 10 percent, so no big deal.
I took it to the bank, deposited $100k in cash, and put $15k in my pocket. I decided to go to the topless pool at the Rio with a few friends and my sister. We started taking shots at like 11am. We would drink a Corona, have a shot of Patron, drink a Miami Vice, and do a Jagerbomb. We probably repeated that cycle 10 times each before closing. Of course I was paying for everything. Each round was like $125 per person, but I was rich, so who cares.
According to my sister, at one point I was telling people I would throw $10k in the pool. When they didn’t believe me, I actually did. Apparently she literally jumped in after it and got nearly all of it back.
That night I and four other guys went to the strip club. We got a private room, bottle service, the works. The bill was charged to my credit cards; it maxed a few of them. I was told it was going to be a couple thousand. The next day I looked at my statements. The total bill came to over $20k. One of the strippers stole my Pradas, and I couldn’t finish because I was too drunk, so I just fell asleep.
A few days later I lost $25k at 25-50-100 PLO. I got aces with a jack and a ten single-suited under the gun and decided to limp-repot all-in. Got it all-in preflop versus a guy sitting with over $100k. We ran it twice; he had queen, eight, nine, and ten double suited. He flopped a full house first hand; second hand I flopped an ace, and he rivered a straight. Lost like half my roll in two days since the big cash.
I proceeded to spend over $1k a day on drinks, partying, everything. Went home with like $15k after leaving with $50k, getting up to $180k at peak. The pool incident remained the most vivid memory, my sister’s quick decision not to retrieve it.
