An Amateur Faces The Poker Pros

Ken Adams Plays His Best Game When It Counts

(CBS) 
I had been trying to get a read on the player who filled Carlos Mortenson's seat two chairs to my left. He was wearing a championship gold bracelet, indicating that he had won the World Series 7-card stud event in 2000 (or had borrowed a friend's championship bracelet for effect). He appeared exhausted, and was laying his head on the table to rest between hands. I was less intimidated by his physical presence and the bracelet than by his hand protector – a big rubber pterodactyl with huge red teeth. Definitely the coolest card protector I had run across all week, except maybe for the mysterious Petri dish.

Unfortunately I never got to find out how he played, as they closed down my table and redistributed us into seats at other tables that had been vacated by people who had busted out. I was unhappy to have to move from my lucky seat, and from a table where I had come to know the playing styles of all but the most recently arrived players.

I was sent to a table that looked fairly safe. There was only one recognizable pro at the table, Kenna James. I had played at the same table with him in the championship event in 2003, and impressed me then as a very strong player. He is married to one of the top women players, Marsha Waggoner, and used to be an actor before he turned poker pro. Clearly a player to respect, but not as dangerous and unpredictable as Carlos Mortenson. Best of all (for me), he had a small stack and was not in a position to wait for big starting hands.

I was just getting comfortable at my new table when a player busted out and the vacant seat (two seats to my left) was filled by Humberto Brenes, one of the most talented and successful pros on the tournament circuit. He is one of the top money winners every year, with countless titles and final table finishes including the World Series championship event.

With about a half hour to go before the 6:45 dinner break, I picked up a pair of queens in late position. The player on my right raised to $800, a little less than three times the amount of the big blind – pretty much a standard raise. Believing that I probably had the best hand, I re-raised to $2,400 – a standard re-raise of three times the raiser’s bet. Unexpectedly, the player in the big blind moved all in! The player on my right who had started this raising war quickly folded. I assumed he had raised with a weak ace or a middle sized pair, and knew that either the big blind or I (or both) had stronger hands than that.