Warning. Much name dropping ahead.

Friday I played in the Jennifer Harman Charity Tournament at Caesars Palace, benefiting the SPCA No Kill shelter in Las Vegas. Entry was $300 with multiple $200 rebuys with a qualifier and $200 add-on. There were almost no prizes, though ta $10,000 WSOP seat was donated by Caesars to the winner, and Full tilt gave some prizes to the final table.

This was a strange event, as Jennifer’s request attracted many of the world’s best and best known tournament players, many of whom had little interest in playing or trying to win. Of course, some did. I was delighted to be asked to play as I like the charity a lot (I got my SnowShoe Siamese cat Princess Yulee from that shelter), and I have unlimited respect for Jennifer.

Good news and bad news at my first table. Some empty seats (many players donated the $300 and did not show), but occupying seats were a couple of relative strangers, Barry Greenstein, Chad Brown, Doyle Brunson and David Grey. Doyle wanted to play golf and went all-in on the first hand (6-5 suited). So did David, who seemingly wanted to leave, but not play badly doing it. Chad also went all-in, seemingly to go play cash games. David had J-J and won with a set. Two seats open! Barry made some big bets that were folded to, then I raised all in with 8-8. Barry had A_5 and flopped two pair. Rebuy!

I was not planning to do much rebuying, but I did want to have a good showing because it would be fun and also might help book sales. Winning cash games does not generate much publicity. (Oh, the structure was lightening fast, for those of you who follow this stuff, 1K in chips for your buy, 1K for each rebuy, 2K for the add-on; $25-25 blinds, 25-50, 50-100 in twenty minute rounds.). Fortunately, I picked up a few hands, made aggressive plays, and won many chips, including getting many of my chips back from Barry who was happy to get rid of them and not rebuy.

Their seats were soon taken by Marcel Luske and Isabel Mercier. Marcel was fun, made several rebuys, and played most hands. Here is a hand I lost to Isabel before I knew how she played. (Tight as a drum, she eventually blinded off, essentially). She limped early, I limped behind with Kh-Jh. A few others trailed in. On the flop of Kc Qd 3c,, she checked, I bet nearly the pot, everyone else folded and she called. I did not think she had a very good hand for her early position check on a totally drawish board. The three paired on turn, and I made a too large bet to get her to throw away her draw (about 2/3 pot). She check-raised all-in. I had her covered by a decent amount and and had built the pot to where I had to call, I thought. Wrong, as she had K-Q and I was drawing dead. I got there when a jack hit the river, but they did not give me any chips.

I rebuilt my stack and made it to the add-on period with enough that I did not take the add-on at all.

I will continue this saga next week, with more name dropping and a couple of other hands. For those who cannot wait for the sad ending, I went out 12th, taking an unfortunate beat that I am sure you can wait for.