It’s more than 3 weeks since the World Series of Poker and I’ve now had plenty of time to settle back into the rhythms of my “normal” life. A thousand times I’ve been asked how it feels to have gotten so far in the WSOP, to have won that much money and to have played against such great poker players. The answer is always some variation of the same: I had the time of my life! It truly was the kind of WSOP experience that I’d dreamt about! Well, kind of...

In my dream, the poker gods rained down seven million cash in $1 bills from the ceiling of Binion’s Horseshoe. You know…like they do at the end of the WPT shows! In real life, I had to walk back over to the Rio and sign for a check for substantially less than a cool seven mil! But when it was all said and done, I didn’t make out too badly.

From the moment I made it through the $1,000 satellite, I felt I had accomplished a lot, but it quickly dawned on me that there was a much bigger prize at stake. With the main event starting the next day, I began to focus on the fact that I’d soon be sitting down in the biggest game in town.

On Day 1A, one-third of the 5,619 people playing in the 2005 WSOP main event sat down in one room to play poker. To be honest, when I looked out across the Rio’s Amazon Room and saw table upon table of poker players, each one with $10,000 of their (or somebody else’s) money at stake, I started to wonder how on earth I was going to accumulate enough chips to make it through to Day Two. During that first day, however, I quickly realized that if you put enough pressure on most guys, the kind of pressure where they have to make a decision for their tournament lives, unless they’ve got the absolute nuts, it’s more than likely that they’ll give up the pot and fold.

There are some exceptions, but most people don’t respond well to the constant pressure. Bold, aggressive play worked very well for me in a number of spots where I didn’t have the nuts, but I was sure the other guy didn’t have it either. I also applied the “Ade” strategy. Anyone who’s played at the Gutshot and been fortunate enough to have sat down at a table with the ever-so-shy Ade may have had occasion to ask him about his big blind defense strategy. You have to ask, mind you, because getting this guy to talk is like getting blood from a stone! Anyway, Ade’s strategy goes something like this: any time someone raises his big blind, if he looks down and sees at least one face card, he’s going to play the hand. Well, I did the same: if there was one face card or better, and the raise was not too big, I quickly called and played the flop. This and an aggressive strategy worked out extremely well for me on Days One and Two and I steadily built up a healthy stack of chips.

Days Two and Three were steady, steady, steady. I played mostly premium hands and my big blinds until on Day Three, when I looked down at AsQs. I had won two big pots in the previous days with AQ, so I was happy to see my old friend again. And this time, it’s suited! So I raised, and a player with whom I’d tangoed over a couple of pots re-raised me nearly all in. ‘That’s a very big raise’ I said to myself. ‘One of two things are gonna happen here: I’m gonna go home or I’m gonna double up and be among the chip leaders come the end of the day.’ For some strange reason, folding did not appear to be an option to me at the time. So I try to think what he could have and what my odds are of winning, assuming he isn’t on a complete bluff, which I don’t think he is.

Bearing in mind he’s potentially putting his tournament life at stake, I figured it’s a big pair or maybe AK. So why do I make the call with AQ? Well, playing in the WSOP has confirmed something that I have long known about myself. I like the thrill of gambling! Before leaving for Vegas, I gambled for cab fare to the airport… for cab fare back from the airport, for breakfast… for dinner. A week ago I won lunch from one of my colleagues at work! You get the picture. In any event, after two days of playing, my instincts had never let me down, so I decided to gamble. To make a long story short, the gamble paid off when the third spade hit the river and I was among the chip leaders in the WSOP.

Days Three and Four went smoothly. My premium hands, including a few pocket pairs (sixes, queens, nines) held up. The pocket nines won me a monster pot of about $300,000 when the turn brought me trips. I also got quite a few chips by raising big and putting other players to the test.

Day Five, I think, was the turning point in the tournament for me. I got on the TV table and overplayed AJ to Greg Raymer, thinking he was on a complete steal. Of course he had KKs and I got no help from the flop, turn or river. I was crippled. But a hand or two later, when I was completely steaming, I doubled back up with another overplayed Ace. By the end of the day, however, my $2 million in chips were halved, after having only played a handful of pots! Needless to say, I was gutted about my play for the day. But the upside was that I was still in it. We were down to the last 27 and off to Binion’s.

On Day Six, we were moved out of the wide open and modern space of the Rio into a dark and cozy poker room at the historic Binion’s Horseshoe. At my table were Mike Matusow, Mike Kessler, Shawn Sheikhan, John Howard, Aaron Kanter, Tom Sartori, Conor Tate and Brad Kondracki. Kessler, Sartori, Kondracki and I had played together over the course of the last few days and I was happy to see them at my table. I had not played with Mr. Matusow, but of course, I’d watched him play (on t.v.) and was immediately aware that with his huge chip stack ($5 million) I needed to steer clear of him if at all possible. I made a few raises here and there and picked up the blinds/antes, which were substantial by that time. I was up to about 1.3 million when I looked down at Ad3d and figured it was worth a gamble for an all-in call of about $200K. We both got a pair of Aces on the board but I had a weak kicker and I only caught one lousy diamond. Back down to $1 million. After that, I picked up a few blinds and antes through a couple more rounds. In the meantime, players were dropping like flies. Hilderbrand, Sartori, Raymer, Pham (defeated by the miracle hand that is AQ), Vu, Ivey, Minh Ly (outsted holding the AJ).

Critical hand for me: Everyone folded around to the button, a big stack who’d made a huge raise. I was in the small blind with A3 offsuit and figured the button was on a steal and all I had to do was get through the big blind. At that point, I looked over at Brad Kondracki in the big blind to see what I could see. Brad wasn’t giving anything away, so I was left to consider the power of my Ace. If the big blind has anything other than a monster (or maybe an Ace himself), I’d be picking up a nice sized pot here as the button was going to have to fold to my all-in raise. I reckoned the big blind didn’t have anything (what can a random big blind hand have?!?) and pushed it all in. The big blind looks at the dealer and as soon as I hear the words “Whatever she has…” I know I’m done for. He completes his sentence: “What ever she has… I call”. The button folded and the big blind turned over AK! Godd@*%it! What the heck is he doing with that kind of a hand in the big blind?!? Anyway, he caught a King and I needed crutches, I was so crippled! A hand or two later I was dealt pocket fives, which looked like suited Aces (LOL!) at that point and I pushed it all in. It was folded back around to one of the chip leaders who, in the blind, couldn’t help but call with his J8. He hits the jack and the dream is over. I wake up to the enormity of it all, with every possible “if only this”, “if only that” running through my mind.

Eventually I made it over to the Rio to pick up my cheque and I was smiling again! What a ride! The dream was a good one, while it lasted. I could have asked for more, but why?!!? I had a free vacation in Las Vegas! I sat down and played poker with the best players on earth in the World Series of Poker. I got to chat it up with great players like Phil Ivey, Greg Raymer and John Juanda and best of all, I got to play poker for eight days straight and get paid for it. If there is a better life, I don’t know what it is! Needless to say my run in the WSOP has garnered a lot of attention. From long lost pals, to my hometown newspaper, to writers working on magazine articles and books all the way to agents talking sponsorship deals. I suppose this could be a life-changing event for me. But in the meantime, it’s strictly back to work, which is where I went pretty much as soon as I got back. I was warmly greeted with flowers, a bottle of champagne and (surprise, surprise) a new transaction to work on!

This new transaction has taken up a lot of my time so I haven’t had much opportunity to play poker. I was going to try to play the Monday night game at Gutshot, the very day we flew back from Vegas, but I was completely knackered. I tried to play the next day (yes the £5 beginner’s night! LOL!) but found myself on a waitlist 20 people deep! Geez, what do you gotta do to get in game around here? Win the freaking World Series of Poker? LOL!

I played the £30 tourney on Wednesday, where I battled solidly enough to make it to the last two tables and then lose when my pocket sevens gave me trips on the turn but pocket queens spiked the fourth club at the river to make a queen high flush.

On Friday, I ventured into the £10 tourney. I played solidly there until I got tired of the same guy raising my blind 5 (maybe six?) times in a row and me folding away. I made a stand with my Queen Eight and he turned over pocket sevens. Seven on the flop and I was crippled!

As it so happened, I was out of commission with work for the next week; but at Derek’s (Gutshot Supremo) and Mark Patrick’s suggestion (and on Coral’s dime), I decided to give it a chance in the Vic’s £300 tourney the following Sunday. Early on, the game was pretty uneventful. I wasn’t getting any cards, but I’m a great believer in even distribution and eventually the cards started coming my way. Only problem was, no one wanted to play with me. Boo hoo….

So I waited, waited and waited until I finally picked my spot with a pair of nines. I raised 250 and everyone folded but for the ever-cagey Neil Channing, who re-raised me to 700. Now, anyone with experience playing Neil, probably knows exactly what that means. Unluckily for me, I don’t have all that much experience playing against Neil and I called. For some reason, I mistakenly got it into my head that his raise meant high cards and if the flop came low, I’d probably be winning.

Okay, so the flop came low. I sighed and dropped my head and also my hand to the table. He took that for a check and bet out big. I ended up raising and Neil quickly went all in. Ding Ding Ding!!! Looking back on this, I should have thought this hand through a bit more. Everybody had folded to my raises, including Neil up to then. He is only playing back at me with a monster. Nines are nice, but they are not all that great. Why not do a Phil Helmuth and make a “great” laydown, Tiffany? But no… I’m a bit too headstrong and it ended up costing me big when Neil turned over his Aces and I got no help on the board.

A few hands later, I raised into pocket Queens which eventually turned into quad Queens and that was that. Certainly not the result I had hoped for, but it definitely was a learning experience. Afterwards, I made my way upstairs to watch the final table of the Vic’s big event and got a chance to meet Mr. Tony G. The guy is an absolute monster at the table! I love to watch him play! And he was really friendly and chatty in person.

So now it’s Monday, and I’m back in the office, stealing time away from work when I get a chance, in order to write this article. If anything, the couple of times I’ve played poker since I returned from the WSOP have confirmed to me that I’ve still got a long ways to go and a lot of experience to get under my belt. But it also proved to me that I can play solid poker, still maintain aggressiveness and still have confidence in myself, whatever decision I make at the table. Whatever happens, I’m going to keep playing, keep improving and hopefully winning. And maybe, with a little bit of luck, sooner or later my WSOP dream ending, will actually come true!