Chris Moneymaker Gives His Take On "The Hand"

In Friday's column, I detailed my laydown of pocket Aces early in Day 1A of the World Series of Poker Main Event. It was easily the most difficult decision I had all day Thursday...and probably the most difficult decision I've had in my four years of playing poker.

To revisit briefly (you can read the whole column by clicking here), a player raised before the flop 2x the big blind to $200. I raised it to $750 with pocket Aces (A of clubs and A of spades). Everyone folded around to the raiser. He called.

The flop came off 6 (hearts), 6 (diamonds), and 4 (hearts). My opponent checked. I bet about $1,500. He immediately came over the top of me with a $7,000 reraise...which, if I would've called, would've been 1/3 of my chip stack.

After debating for what seemed like forever as to what to do, I laid down pocket Aces...putting him on either 44, a big pocket pair, or a flush draw...but no matter what, I followed the advice of Chris Moneymaker and Dan Nassif, who both told me before I headed out to Las Vegas (Moneymaker when he was on our show and Nassif when he emailed me) to lay down big pocket pairs on Day 1 if somebody is firing big at the pot.

But, that didn't make laying down pocket Aces any easier. It was brutal, and it was still on my mind for a couple of hours later...until I had a chance to talk to the guy that made the huge reraise.

After our table was broken up, and I was going to a different table, I approached the gentleman, and I asked him what he had. He informed me that he flopped the full house with pocket 4's. He went on to explain that he bet that big ($7000), because he didn't want another 6 to come off...which would've rendered his full house useless versus mine.

He continued to explain it to me in such detail that one of the floor directors asked us to end the conversation and move to our new tables.

After talking to that guy, I felt much better about the laydown of pocket Aces. That's because...I believed him.

I felt like he had no incentive to lie to me since the odds of us seeing each other again were quite slim. The confidence I got from the monster laydown propelled me the rest of the day, I think. And, I was anxious to talk to Chris Moneymaker about the hand...as Moneymaker has been kind enough to serve as a mentor of sorts for my first WSOP experience.

We finally got a chance to have the conversation Friday afternoon after exchanging a variety of texts Thursday while I was playing.

I told him the whole story. I told him about the hand. I told him about how I used his and Dan's advice in laying it down. And, then I told him about the conversation I had with my opponent...who told me that he flopped a full house.

I was expecting Moneymaker to react incredibly impressed with my play. I wanted the 2003 WSOP Champion to tell me how brilliant my move was. I wanted him to say, "Wow, siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiccccccccccccccccckkkkkkkkkkkkk laydown," as only a poker guy could.

Instead...

...he said...

"That guy lied to you. He didn't have it."

What?

Moneymaker explained that, in his opinion, when a player overexplains his hand to another player, usually it means that the player is lying. Not always. But, usually.

Moneymaker said, in his opinion, my opponent had one of three hands:

1. Jack (hearts) Ten (hearts): This means he was on a flush draw and wanted to take a chance of taking down a big pot by betting me off of it...or by hitting another heart on the turn or river should I call him.

2. 8 (hearts) 8 (whatever): If he would've had pocket Kings or pocket Queens, odds are, both Chris and I thought, he would've reraised my preflop reraise. Therefore, he put him on a mid-pair...or...

3. Pocket 4's: Moneymaker didn't rule out that he had the pocket 4's my opponent claimed to have, and said it was indeed possible that he was telling the truth. The issue he had with my opponent really having pocket 4's was that if he did, why did he bet so much with only 4 cards out there that could help me? The issue both Moneymaker and I have is that we don't know who the hell the guy is. He could be a great player. He could be a moron. Tough to tell.

And, because of that, when it came down to it, Chris said I made the right move...because I'm still alive in the tournament, and if I raise and go all-in there (which was the only choice...there was no calling with that hand) and he's either got the 4's or he's got the flush draw and hits, I'm going home...90 minutes into the tournament.

So, I got off the phone with Moneymaker feeling kind of down about the whole thing. But, there are two things I have to say about the conversation:

1. How cool is it that this guy---who is a god to casual poker fans---took 20 minutes out of his day to break this whole thing down with me. Fuck, he was texting me during the tournament to see how I was doing, and he told me to give a call afterwards to let him know how it went, because when I contacted him earlier, he was in the middle of having dinner with 2004 WSOP Main Event Champion Greg "Fossilman" Raymer.

2. I could sit there and talk about a poker hand and how to play it for hours...and that means that I'm a much bigger fucking geek than I thought I was.

Creeping At The Hard Rock Pool

My guess is you will spend a good portion of your trip through insideSTL.com today in STL Nightlife for the pics from this past weekend's festivities. We hit Tryst at Wynn Friday night...and went to a Las Vegas Strip Cougar Den called The Bank at The Bellagio Saturday night.

Tail galore.

Also included in the pics will be images from the Hard Rock pool...which Saturday had friends of the show and friends of the site TheDirty.com on hand with some of Nik Richie's "Dirty Celebs," including two of the more famous ones, "Alien" and "Leper."

Producer Joe brought it strong by popping out of our cabana like Angelina Jolie was walking past us when "Leper" made her way past us. The best part is this girl, who earned the nickname "Leper" from Nik on TheDirty.com because he believes a gentleman's dick woudl fall off should he sleep with her, immediately answered and turned around to come back and talk with us after being addressed loudly as "Leper" by an intoxicated Producer Joe.

Later in the afternoon, "Leper" and "Alien" returned to our cabana...and to our delight...and according to Producer Joe, as a "thank you" from Nik for our cooperation between insideSTL.com and TheDirty.com...the two lasses began to engage in a potpourri of lesbian activities. Many of the pictures can be seen by clicking here.

Most of the pictures, however, can be seen only by stealing my camera.

Andy Dick Hanging Out With Us...Seriously

Those of you who listen to Team 1380's ITD Morning After may have heard our exit poll question from two weeks ago in which we asked the following of our listeners/emailers/message board posters:

What's most likely to happen in Las Vegas?

a. I win the World Series of Poker.

b. Producer Joe gets arrested.

c. We both end up in a hot tub with Andy Dick.

And, sure enough...

I haven't won the World Series of Poker. Producer Joe made it through the weekend without getting arrested (although he did get so lit Saturday at the pool that he was the only member of the group to not make it out Saturday night). But, we both did end up with Andy Dick...at least in our cabana.

When I got done playing Thursday night/Friday morning, Big Grease sent me a text saying he was hanging out at the Hard Rock Center Bar with Andy Dick.

Thinking he was just making a reference to our exit poll and completely joking, I dismissed the text as bullshit.

It turns out that he wasn't joking, and Big Grease---who Andy Dick took quite a liking to---was hanging out with Andy and his "entourage" Thursday night. They became so close that Andy took up Big Grease's offer of invading the room he was sharing with Producer Joe to fuck around with Producer Joe (not sexually...as that is probably important to state in this particular case). 

When Andy Dick got to Big Grease's and Producer Joe's room, Producer Joe was passed out (this time from Benadryl), and so he didn't wake up while Andy Dick was lurking in his bedroom.

Perfect.

Grease and Andy hit it off real nicely. Andy thoroughly enjoyed Big Grease's mohawk. As a matter of fact, when Andy booked his cabana at the Hard Rock pool for Friday, he put it under "Andy Dick and Ryan's Cabana" with the hotel.

Yep...pretty fucking creepy.

So, because Andy took such a liking to Big Grease, Grease was able to bring Andy and his friends down to our cabana. The lovely thing about this situation was that Andy, who may have been slightly fucked up at 2 in the afternoon, was joined by his friends...all wearing "speedo tuxedos."

At one point, we got a picture with him and while we were getting the picture taken, he was caressing my right nipple.

Perfect.

Later, he accosted one of my friends in the cabana as this unsuspecting gentleman went in there to try and quietly get his shirt. Andy, who took a liking to this particular taller man, cornered him, began caressing his nipples, and said, "Ooh. You're a tall boy. What are you like 6'3"?

Hot.

Big Grease later called Andy Dick late at night as we returned from Tryst Friday night/Saturday morning, and his voice mail message greeting was an interesting one.

It's a generic voice mail with that voice mail lady's voice saying, "You have reached the voice mail box of (Andy's voice is now heard) In The Butt (Andy's voice goes away). Please leave a message."

Classy.

For more pics from Andy Dick and the Hard Rock pool, click here.

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