The Vegas Virgin Part II

Remembering Binion’s and my early years at the World Series of Poker.

1998 was my first WSOP and the memories of it are as clear as ever! Being in the mighty Horseshoe and around such poker giants as TJ Cloutier, Johnny Chan, and of course Doyle Brunson was absolutely brilliant. One thing that stands out that year and was probably the case during the late 90’s to early 2000’s was that the majority of the players attending the WSOP were well over thirty. There was nowhere near the amount of young players that there are making the trip nowadays.

Anyway, seeing all these old pros was a bit over whelming and I remember thinking that I was well in over my head and that one mistake against these old boys, and I’d be in a heap of trouble! Still though I was cocky enough and winning my first single table satellite for over $1,000, only fueled my enthusiasm, and I was ready for more.

Some of the other younger players that you would see walking around and playing in Binion’s were Daniel Negreanu and Mike Matusow. Daniel, of course, would go on and win his first bracelet that year and, as we all know, would never look back. Mike, in fairness too, has done pretty well for himself also!

There were a lot of Irish lads that would routinely make the long journey over to Vegas for the Series and would bring with them a wealth of passion and excitement to the game that was felt in and around the poker room. They had fun but make no mistake about it – they were some of the best players in the world. The likes of Scott Gray, Padraig Parkinson, George Mckeever and Donnacha O’Dea to name a few. As it turns out we had plenty to cheer about that year as Donnacha would capture Ireland’s very first bracelet in the PLO. This would be followed up next year (1999) with the main event final table being dominated by the Irish. After a hard fought battle Noel Furlong would eventually go on to win the title with the legend and the pride of Irish poker Padraig Parkinson finishing in third place. Great times indeed!

Anywa, my main focus during my earlier years at the WSOP was always more about making a profit and risking a small amount of my bankroll, rather than putting up a big chunk and playing for the bracelets. Keep in mind too that there wasn’t really a lot of value in those events back then because most of the people who played were all very, very tough.

So, I stuck with the satellites and the side games and tried to grind out a living that way.

Over the years I was fortunate enough to win my fair share of the smaller poker tournaments which definitely helped me with my belief that I could play the game at the highest level. Just watching how other players would react to me at the table and seeing the respect that I would routinely get from them, all helped fuel my passion for the game.

Fast forward then to 2003 and everything really started to change after Chris Moneymaker crashed on to the poker scene taking down the biggest title in the world of poker along with a cash prize of two and a half million dollars! It seemed like it was on TV all the time and poker began to get a lot more attention. He was the perfect champ at the right time. Here you had this down-to-earth, run-of-the-mill style of player who defied all the odds in capturing the main event, so it’s really no wonder that heaps of people decided to take a closer look at our great game!

What seemed like over only a few months, thousands of new players began to play! And not only that – it also brought back many of the older lads who used to play the game but had given it up due to the action drying up. Now seeing all the new money pouring into the game – they decided to come back to the felt! Slurrp!

You know, I think it’s fair to say that as a result of Moneymaker’s win – it injected so much life in to the game. Poker would never look back!

Of course it’s also important to mention that my good friend Bryan Watkins (the cop from San Francisco) led that ’03 main event with only 40 players remaining! It was only after a horrible beat combined with some bad timing when making some gutsy moves did Bryan lose his lead and unfortunately got knocked out with only 20 players to go. Bryan is a great friend of mine and is an excellent player. Even to this day we always think about what could have been for him! “That’s poker my friends!”

Anyway, in 2004 I was in great form and was able to win three seats for the main event. So after keeping my first seat and selling my other two, things were looking good! A quick note – in ’02 or ’03, Binion’s changed the rule by making it – if you won a seat you could not sell it – you had to play it. However, if won a second seat you could sell it as oppose to recent years when you were given only a token and were allowed to sell it!

As it turned out, the ’04 event started off very well for me and I was one of the chip leaders late in day 1, I folded pocket kings to Humberto Brenes on a 10-high flop with only he and I in a small blind big blind scenario, and let me tell ya when I folded my kings face up he jumped up out of his seat and showed me his pocket aces in disbelief. What can I say when you’re in the zone, sometimes things seem very clear!

Anyway, as it turns out after a table change I ended up at the same table as Gus Hansen who at the time I might say was running soooooo sick and was out-drawing everyone! In one particular hand against me heads-up, his 9-7 off-suit beat my beautiful pocket aces. Nasty! Crazy old game! And as faith would have it he knocked me out in the final level in day 1 on a queen-high flop, I had A-Q, but what did he have? Pocket aces – just sick, I hit what I consider to be a perfect flop for my hand and I had raised preflop, and he just called but as it turns out it was a great flop for him as well because I hit my queen. So I shoved and of course he called. Nasty! And I was off to the bar!

Fast forward now to 2007 and in a field of 2,998 players it would be my time. Indeed it seemed that the poker Gods collaborated and felt that Ciaran “Big C” O’ Leary had suffered enough and I was able to come out on top. It really was an incredible experience for many reasons of course, the bracelet, the title, being a world champion, the money, the satisfaction that I was able to validate what I had always believed and that was that I was capable of winning on the biggest stage of all – the World Series of Poker!

Let me tell ya, it wasn’t easy! We played the first day for about 14 hours and if I remember right I was in 47th place. Then we played on day 2 for over 18 hours to get down to the final table of nine. By this stage I was in sixth place with about 650,000 in chips with the leader Alex Jacob sitting very comfortable with over three million!

By the time I got to bed it was 8 a.m.. I was exhausted, though I still knew that a lot had to be done yet.

I didn’t really have a plan for the final table, I just decided to play it by ear. And as it turns out that was all I could do as I was completely card dead. I mean I’m talking rigamortis here, and I can’t even spell the word! Granted sometimes that can be ok as it can keep you out of trouble. However, given the fact that the blinds at this stage were extremely high it was getting close to the panic mode! I can say the big hand where I got very lucky was when I was forced to move in with only 210,000 in chips with the blinds now at 15,000/30,000 with 5,000 ante with pocket nines, and though I didn’t have a good feeling about the hand that my opponent had (Paul Evans), I felt that this was it. No sooner had I my chips in when he said, “You’re not going to like it Ciaran because I have Kings!”

Now I’m a 4/1 dog against his hand so I’m going to need a lot of help! I missed the flop but somehow I came back from the dead on the turn when I spiked a nine. I know – I got lucky, but what ya gonna do! After this, hand momentum seemed to be sucked my way and I doubled up a couple of times and was on top of the leader board with only three players remaining. It was crazy really considering that we had started three long days ago with almost 3,000 players, which at the time was the biggest event in the history of poker outside the ’05-’06 main events. I ended up knocking out Alex Jacob with what many felt was the hand of the final table.

Paul Evans had the button and folded, I was in the small blind with 7-7 and rather han raising I decide to just call and complete the bet. Alex had the option to raise but elected to just check. At this time I knew two things. He would not put me on a pair because I didn’t raise preflop and the fact that he himself didn’t raise either ruled out him having a pair or even ace- or king-high. I checked before the dealer turned over the flop (checked dark). The flop came A-4-2 with two clubs. Remember now – I’m not worried about the ace.

Alex made a bet of 150,000 (almost pot) and I figured that he was trying to take it down so I raise it to 600,000, and after some thought, he called. So now bells start going off as to what he must have and I believe that it’s most likely a four. Here comes the turn, it’s a king. Now, again I’m not worried about him having a king either so I think if I move in he might put me on a bluff and if he has a four he may call! So that’s what I do, I go all-in! Well, he deliberates over it for what seemed like forever and eventually called, and sure enough he had a four with a nine kicker. The river was a blank and he was gone.

It only took me two hands to beat Paul and I was the champ. My winning hand was K-10! I tell ya, I was wrecked tired for about 10 days afterwards, but I still get chills, my friends, as I write this today. As I said already it was just my time – it was meant to be – and I hope you too can someday have the same good fortune of possibly capturing one of those coveted gold bracelets and a World Series of Poker title!

Ciaran Big C