Don't be shy!!!

[Julie]

Thanks to Spyke_Daddy for submitting our first Player Spotlight! His story about playing in the HP tourney while rushing to make a flight was hilarious :waytogo:

And for being featured in our player spotlight, Spyke_Daddy has won a ticket to one of our exclusive Hollywood Poker tourneys! Congratulations Spyke_Daddy!!

Don't be shy, we want to hear from more of our players. Tell us all about yourself or share a funny story or anecdote.

Send your submissions to hollay@hollywoodpoker.com and watch the Extra to learn more about our players.

[Julie]

I’m playing an HP tournament on a Sunday morning and am really accumulating chips into a dominant stack. As the tournament wears on, I realize that I need to leave and head to the airport for a business trip to Palo Alto, California. It becomes rather clear that I’m not going to be able to finish the tournament before I leave.

As I’m preparing to leave, I beg my wife to play for me. She says that I'd be better off if I let the blinds eat at my stack, rather than letting her mess things up. I try to convince her to follow a simple strategy (fold everything but big pocket pairs), but she refuses. So, admittedly, I leave the house in a huff.

I leave that big stack behind, with only 30-40 players left. There were several hundred players to start with. I head off to my office to pick up my co-workers who are traveling with me.

After a 30 minute drive to the office, I join my co-workers and share my sad story about leaving the tourney in such a great position. Bob, one of my technology architects, comments that his tablet PC has a wireless connection using cell phone technology. During our drive to the airport, we manage to frantically re-connect and see where my stack is at after 45 minutes of absence.

I’m decimated. I’m down to $8,000 in chips and the blinds are a few positions away. Not just any blind either, but a $4,000 big blind. There are now only 21 players left. I manage to pull of some low-odd flushes to triple up my stack. The whole time, Bob is smacking his head in disbelief that I’m hitting these cards. With a workable stack, I’m able to fall back into my comfortable style of play. By the time we arrive at the airport, I'm down to the final table.
It isn't long when I see my group of co-workers staring at the security line. They realize that I'll have to disconnect to get through security and get to the terminal for boarding. We’re still about 30 minutes from boarding, so I tell my co-workers to go ahead and head to the terminal.

Bob stays behind and I continue to work the final table down to three people. After some warnings from Bob that we're going to board in about 20 minutes, I agree to get into the security line and play until we hit the x-ray machine. As we wind through the line, I get down to heads up play.

There are now a half a dozen people leaning over my shoulder in the security line asking me and Bob what I'm doing:

"Playing a poker tournament."

"Is it real money?"

"Yes."

"Which one are you?"

"That lady."

"Why are you a lady?"

"Just because."

"How much money will you win?"

"A lot for paying nothing to enter."

"Where does the money go?"

"Expensive hobbies."

"Are you a pro?"

"I wish."

A few feet from the security officer, I have Ace Seven off-suit. I call the big blind. The flop hits 77A. I slow-play the hand until the river, when my opponent calls "all-in". I gleefully call…win the hand....shut down the tablet....throw it to Bob...run through security....dash down the terminal...and board the plane with time to spare.

I would not have needed the plane to float all the way from Minneapolis to Palo Alto, California. I had never won a multi-table tournament with such a large field of players!

I used the winnings to pay for my new iBook which is now affectionately called, "Sevens full of Aces."

Hollywood Poker runs a great site, has great tournament structures and has a great group of people at the tables. I play Sit-n-Go tournaments almost every night - keep an eye out for me and say, "Hello!" at the tables!

Spyke_Daddy