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Imagine that you are a small town poker player. You aren’t a pro player. You aren’t even a part time wannabe pro. You work in a small town as a foreman for a general contractor. Not the most glorious job in the world, but it provides a good living for you and your family.

David Levi at the $1,000 NL Event at the WSOP (I was in seat 7 of this table) Photo courtesy of WSOP.com

Poker is your hobby. You play every week with your buddies and may even play in a local bar league. Naturally you play online where you have about 574.32 in your poker account. You built it up from an initial $100 deposit. This is your knocking around money online. If things ever got tight financially, you would pull this out in an instant.

Your dream is to play one day at the World Series of Poker. You watch poker on TV and imagine yourself up on stage taking down an event like Moneymaker, Raymer, or Cada. Someday you want to go there, but it is a dream. It really isn’t that terribly realistic of a dream. At least not until your buddies figure out that if 20 of you put up $50 a piece, one of you could go play in a $1,000 event at the WSOP. The guys decide to hold a winner take all satellite for the $1,000 entry. Normally you guys play $10 with one $10 rebuy every week. $50 is a lot of money for one game. However, you agree and decide to pull $50 off your online poker account so you don’t take any money from your family expenses.

The day of the satellite arrives and you start you game somewhat slowly. You then pick up aces in the 3rd level of the satellite and win a huge set over set hand to take the chip lead. You then run like fire over the next 2 and 1/2 hours and emerge from the satellite as the winner. You are so excited. You go home and tell your wife all about the win and how you can now fulfill your dream of playing in the event.

While your wife is a bit skeptical, she goes along with the idea because this is your dream. You go an make plans and decide to make this a mini-vacation. You, your wife, and your kids book a four day trip for Vegas. You get a room at one of the off strip casinos to save money. You then work on your game for the next couple of weeks or so leading up to the event. You feel ready to play.

The day of the Event finally arrives and you enter the Rio to a sea of people. You came over to the Rio and registered the day prior, but there were not nearly this number of people. This was Day 1a of the $1,000 NL Event and there was 3,000 players waiting around in the halls. You see a couple of pros walk by including Daniel Negreanu and you try to get to him for an autograph, but he was too quick. Finally, you go into the room and take your seat at table 45 in Brasilia and seat number 9.

You look around the room in amazement at the sea of people that are still filing in and hope to catch a glimpse of a pro. You see David Levi walking in your table’s direction and he stops abruptly and asks the dealer if this was table 45. After confirming, Levi sits down in Seat 1. You think, “Wow. I get to play with David Levi.” You wonder who else will show up, but your table fills up with virtual nobodies.

Noon approaches and then you hear a man get on the microphone and greet everyone and welcome them to the Rio. He then goes over some rules and you are still looking around to see if you can find Hellmuth, Brunson, and the like. Finally, the announcer says, “The button is in seat number 1. Blinds are 25 and 50. Dealers please, shuffle up and deal.”

Alright, here you go. Time to play poker. You are nervous. You knock over your stack of 3,000 chips and quickly restack them. Nobody else seems to be nervous. Hell, the fat guy in seat 7 is texting someone. Doesn’t he realize that hundreds of thousands of dollars is on the line. The first hand is dealt. 8-4 offsuit. Fold. Ok, no sweat. I folded like a champ. Fat ass still texting.

You notice the cocktail guy walking around with water and you ask if you can get a beer. He goes “Sure sir” and walks away. Ok, you are ready to hunker down and play some poker. About four hands in, you are dealt pocket fours. Oh look, fat bastard just raised. Probably has A-K or A-Q. The guy right next to you calls. You call. The fat guy seems real interested to see the flop.

The flop falls As-Kd-4d. Yahtzee! A set of fours. Let’s see what happens. The fat guy is betting about half the pot. He hit his ace. Goodie. The other guy called too. Did he call with an ace too? Maybe a king. Who cares. You smooth call hoping that the fat guy bets the turn. The turn falls the Jc. The fat guy bets out 600, around the size of the pot. The other guy calls. Time for a raise. You announce “Raise”, and then raise to 1,600. You then almost jump out of your seat when you hear “I’m all-in.” The guy between the two of you sits and thinks for a long time. Ok, he must be on a flush draw. What does the fat guy have? A-K, A-J? I didn’t run into a bigger set did I? I don’t think so. No way.

The guy in the middle finally folds and you think about 20 seconds before saying “call.” The fat guy flips over A-J of diamonds. You’re ahead! He flopped top pair and a flush draw and turned two pair. While your opponent has outs, he is only 29% roughly to win. You think “No diamond, ace or jack. Don’t do it to me. Don’t do it….”

The river falls….the 6 of diamonds. The fat guy does a muted “yeah” as he hit his flush. You then watch as all of your chips are then pushed over to your opponent. You both started the hand with the same amount of chips. You are out. You get up stunned and look around and the fat guy has the audacity to say “take care” as you walk off. You hear the dealer yell out “Seat Open!” People all look in your direction to see who it was that busted. You then realize how huge this room is as you walk out of the room, eliminated from the event.

You’re WSOP event is now over. Your dream at fame, fortune, and poker immortality is over just a mere 10 minutes after it started.

Welcome to poker.