Review of the 2009 OC Hillel Charity Celebrity Poker Tournament - Part 2

April 16, 11:22 PMLA Poker Tournament ExaminerAlex Gonzales

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Alex's new look for 2009. Scary, huh?

As I mentioned before, this was my second Hillel event where I finished in the top 50 last year, which is pretty good considering it was my first time playing a poker tournament live at a real casino. Things have changed since then and this time around for 2009, I had a plan. I realized the only way to impress the poker stars and celebs in attendance was to win the entire thing! Can you imagine? I knew this feat wouldn’t come easy so I brought my A-game this time. I wanted my look for 2009 to scare everybody in the casino and let them know that this year Alex means business.

With my new look ready to go, I made my way to table 4. As I walked to table 4, I couldn’t help but feel confident about my chances at this year’s tournament. This was the year I was going to see my name proudly on the Cardplayer.com leaderboards. Guaranteed! Ahem, but when I arrived at the table, reality sunk in. I wasn’t going anywhere because in seat 4 was my new friend Mike. I couldn’t bust a new friend out of the tournament. I’d feel too guilty. After thinking how I would kindly take Mike out of the tournament without hurting his feelings with my mad poker skills, a new worry came over me as I sat at the table and saw who one of my other opponents would be in seat 5. It was none other than World Series of Poker bracelet winner Annie Duke. Great, just my luck. So after Jerry Yang graciously shouted, “Shuffle up and deal!”, I dug in deep, eyeing my opponents at the table one by one, and focused on my before mentioned A-game that would bring down the house to a roaring applause.

But once the cards were dealt I felt as if my luck had run out before I had a chance to use it to my advantage. My first hand dealt was a 3-7 off-suit. This kind of hand only tells you one thing: you’re going to be in for a long, unpleasant day. Now I’m all for bluffing my luck with junk hands and all, but there’s only so much you can do with these hands with a small starting stack of $1,000 in chips. I decided I was going to be patient and wait for my dream cards to arrive. So I waited... and I waited some more... until that dream had come a calling. After over thirty minutes of waiting, it was finally here... A-A! I took my time to analyze the table and envisioning myself raking in the chips. I then heard my first victim make a raise. It was my new buddy, Mike. "Sorry Mike, you’re about to be calling for a re-buy soon", I thought in my head. Scared of Mike's raise, everyone at the table folded around to me when I quickly pushed, “all-in”. With my hoodie over my head and a pair of hold’em shades hiding my eyes, Mike looked at me with a wondrous gaze. He maybe thought I was bluffing, but what he didn’t know was I had his demise in the form of the greatest pocket pair of all time in my grasp. After a few seconds, he made the call and we both turned over our cards. Mike 's pair of 9’s hit me like a ton of bricks. For those who don’t know, I’m afraid of pocket 9’s because they beat me every time, but I felt confident this time so I proudly flipped over my Aces and wowed the table. But just when the dealer was about to deal the flop, I felt that uneasy feeling inside. I quickly explained to the now worried Mike, “Don’t worry, I'll lose”. Sure enough, faster than you can say," Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-low Split-8 or Better", a 9 hit on the turn killing my dreams and it was apparant the phrase, “re-buy” was soon the only words I would need to speak the rest of the day.

With my chip stack dwindling, I decided to stay up-beat and cover the event for my article. I was looking for those moments that I couldn’t have anywhere else than at this Hillel charity event. I found one of those moments at my own table. Aside from the entertaining stories Annie was giving everyone about her participation on the new season of Celebrity Apprentice, I learned something new from the bracelet winner. She claimed one of the only things she was really good at growing up was counting chips. I believed every word of it because before and after every hand, there was Annie counting all the chips and helping the dealer sort out the chaos of all the bets and raises at the table. Talk about experience in the game. Very impressive.

Alex with Men, "The Master" and Van, "Mrs. Master" Nguyen

The first break was approaching and I couldn't believe with my bad cards I had made it this far, but the moment of excitement wore off when I looked down at my stack. I noticed I was barely above the blinds. Yikes. I shrugged off my embarrassing play and went looking for a celeb to ask them about their charity work. I quickly spotted poker great Men “The Master” Nguyen and his beautiful wife, Van "Mrs. Master" Nguyen. Men usually attends every Hillel event he can, but he told me he almost didn’t make it this year. “I just flew in from Connecticut because I was there to play in the $1,500 and $2,000 buy-ins at Foxwoods, but I cancelled them to come here. Bruce persuaded me to be here because I like doing these events for charity. All the winnings from today from me and my wife will go to charity”, he added. For the sake of good-will, I was impressed by Men and his wife to decide to cancel Foxwoods to play in this event. Hopefully, some poker players don‘t think he‘s gone too soft in the charity poker game because he stated he will in fact be ready for the WPT Championship at the Bellagio Hotel & Casino starting April 18th in Las Vegas. Watch out. Men is back!

Alex with Rex Linn and Bruce Manning. Come on, Alex. Smile!

I was on cloud nine knowing I was interacting with my favorite celebrities and poker stars in the tournament, especially when I met an excellent actor by the name of Rex Linn. After a quick photo of me, Rex and Bruce, I quickly let Rex know that my mom was a big fan of his work. He suddenly had the idea to call my mom and say hi. I could just picture the look on my mom’s face when she would pick up the phone. Now I don’t know if it was the beer in Rex’s hand that gave him this bright idea, but either way, it was genius. He dialed the number and when my mom didn’t answer the phone, he left a very nice message for her. She loved every second of it and has since saved the message on her phone for easy playback. Rex was a class act and wanted me to make sure that all of you know that, “CSI: Miami is still the #1 watched show on television. We’re in our 7th season and going on strong.”(For more information about Rex, please visit RexLinn.com and watch CSI: Miami every Monday night @ 10pm on CBS)

With all the photos and interviews I had gotten, it didn’t bother me that I soon busted out the event with my A-4 losing to another 9 that hit the flop shortly after the start of the second round. I decided to mill around the floor and get some pictures and talk to whoever I can. After a few minutes roaming the casino floor, I ran into Sara Rue again who quickly posed for a photo showing off her very nice chip stack as she was being moved to another table.

As the tournament was winding down, I was lucky enough to catch a few more interesting sights, including…

        -Men the master shouting, “All you can eat, baby!” after he stayed alive in the tournament when his A-K won a hand…

        -Josh Malina and Yancy Arias having a showdown of the coolest shades by a celebrity to which Yancy claimed the title...

        -Running into Kari Turner who let me know that she's 76 pages into a screenplay about her USO experiences. Go Writers!                                                   

Now with only two tables left, the only story left on the day was who would win the celebrity trophy for the highest finisher in the tournament. The battle was between Sara Rue and Van Nguyen. Let the battle begin!

I had first hand experience playing with Van earlier at a table and quickly realized she was the one to beat. She’s a fierce opponent who raises the action anytime she feels the table is weak. I remember feeling threatened by her style of play from the moment she sat down. Of course like I predicted, she prevailed as the celebrity champion of 2009 and was awarded the trophy by 2009 Event Chairman, Hal Block! Congrats, Van!

But Van wasn’t done there. She breezed her way into the final table and quickly made work of the remaining players in the tournament until only one other player remained. Could a celebrity actually win a celebrity poker event? My money was on Van as she was on the odds on favorite, but as luck would have it, the poker Gods rained down on another player by the name of Sam Lopez of Commerce, CA, who beat Van heads up and was crowned the winner of the 2009 OC Hillel Charity Celebrity Poker Tournament!                                                                                                           

All good things must come to an end as they say, but I didn’t want it to. I had so much fun that there was no way it could be over, but it was. When it was all said and done, we raised about $30,000 for the foundation charity which is pretty good for the low $180 buy-in and $20 re-buys. I was proud of the money raised, but I was dead tired from a long day. As I drove home that night I realized, what other poker tournament on the planet can you play some good poker, talk shop with some of your favorite celebrities, laugh, cry(when your pocket aces fall on the flop), and meet new friends all in one day? Nowhere else but at the OC Hillel Charity Celebrity Poker Tournament held every Spring. The only question is the one that remains with you, the reader. Will you be there in 2010 for all the fun and poker thrills when we try to raise more money than ever?

Thanks to all the celebrities and poker pros in attendance for your participation in this article.

Here are some projects and plugs to keep an eye out for:

-Catch Dule' Hill in an all new season of, "Pysch", premiering this July on the USA Network

-Look for Sara Rue to get all witchy in a new drama, "Eastwick" this fall on ABC

-For more on ANT, please visit his hilarious blog at AntComic.com/Blog

-Watch for Yancy Arias in his new movie, "Street Dreams" premiering in 2009

-Stay informed on when the 2010 tournament will happen at OCHillelPoker.com

-A BIG thanks to 2009 Event Chairman, Hal Block -  for his tireless effort in running a smooth, sometimes chaotic tournament with no hiccups. Way to go, Hal!

-Also, thanks to a player I met named Mark Kantrowitz. He was nice enough to shake my hand after every hand he beat me at. Ha. 

If you missed Part 1 of this article, click here!                           

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