World Series of Poker: Lessons from taking on pro player Charlie Carrel
There was a moment when I knew – on both a mathematical and instinctual level – that I had the better of Charlie Carrel, one of the best poker players of all time with career winnings of almost $10m. But then we turned over the cards…
I was playing at the World Series of Poker Super Circuit Series this week, one of the top events in the poker calendar and the first to be held in London since 2010. Here thousands of players buy in from £500 to £10,000, with millions in potential winnings.
I’ve casually played poker since its noughties heyday, when the likes of Dave ‘Devilfish’ Ulliott became a late-night TV sensation. I have a semi-regular, low-stakes game with a group of friends and occasionally try my luck at the casino. So when GG Poker invited me to their media table – first prize a ticket for the tournament itself – I was, ahem, all in.
The event is being held at the Marriott Grosvenor Hotel and it’s a suitably Bond-esque arena for Texas hold’em, with 100 tables set up below vast crystal chandeliers, the only sound the meditative clicking of chips.
The media tables were made up of a combination of journalists – two of whom were poker reporters who swore blind they barely played – celebrities including former Chelsea defender Wayne Bridge and former boxing world champion Carl Froch, and two seasoned pros in Charlie Carrel and ElkY.
You could spot the pros a mile off, Carrel clad head to toe in white linen, perhaps riffing on the Jesus vibes lent by his long flowing hair and full beard, and ElkY wearing a grotesque bright red double-denim affair over a diamante-studded t-shirt, making him look like a lesser Bond villain. We split into two groups, with Bridge and ElkY on one table, and Froch and Carrel among the six with me.
Luck was not with me, and I checked and folded my way through the first dozen hands, occasionally making a poor call just to feel involved (a classic rookie mistake). The other table was clearly going harder than we were, with Wayne Bridge lasting approximately three minutes before crashing out with pocket aces, and two of the journalists joining him soon after.
With a dwindling pile of chips, I was being bullied by big pre-flop raises that I couldn’t afford to call. I needed some decent cards, and they eventually arrived in the form of pocket aces. I had the dealer button and prayed for some big pre-flop bets, only to see the first four players check. Carrel, though, made a moderate raise. I called – keeping him on the hook – and everyone else folded. Just me and the $10m man left.
The flop came out, a seven, a two and a jack, all different suits. Garbage, basically. “I’ve got this,” I thought, checking in the hope Carrel would raise, which he did. Perfect. “I’ve been watching you, you’ve made a couple of dicey calls so far but you seem hesitant,” he said, gazing deep into my soul.
The turn and the river were more bad cards, a nine and a five. With no flush or straight draw and the highest card on the table a jack, he’d have to have a set to win, and while I’m not enough of a nerd to know the percentages, I knew the chances were slim. I guessed he had a jack to make the high pair; I raised enough that it was worth a call but, hopefully, not too much to scare him off.
“Would you call if I raised this much?”, Carell said, scuttling a 5,000 chip between his fingers? “What about this much..?”. He threw down equivalent to more than half my remaining chips. I went all in, turning over the aces, only to see a pair of deuces glide across the table, making the three of a kind I was dreading. My chance of winning the World Series of Poker was over. That’s what you get for trying to play rope-a-dope with one of the best players in the world. He may look like Jesus but he plays poker like the devil.
Froch leaned over: “Pocket aces are only good for two things: winning small hands or losing big ones.” Too true. Carrel didn’t last much longer, going all-in pre-flop (he wasn’t bringing his A, B, C or even D game to this peanuts table) and Froch – a real gent, articulate and funny – went on to win.
And that is how I almost won a big pile of chips, but did not in fact win any chips, against one of the world’s best poker players.
• Steve was a guest of GG Poker