World Series of Golf

Ok, for those of you who don’t know the World Series of Golf, here is a quick breakdown of the rules: 125 golfers in 5 man groups generally grouped together based on playing ability, with the better golfers playing the back tees, and the weaker golfers up front. Each player starts with a 10,000 bank that they can use to bet throughout the round. There are antes each hole. The ante starts at 100 per person, and doubles every three holes.
Random cards are drawn for the dealer button and the order you are in is the exact order you will hit in the whole round. The button hits a tee shot first, as do the other four players. After the shot, the button starts the betting, he can check, or bet anything from 100 to all in. Once a bet is made, a player must call the bet, raise the bet, or give up on the hole. If no one calls the bet, the hole is over and the bettor wins the antes.
After that betting round, all players still in the pot hit another shot. Once again, there is a betting round that starts with the dealer. This continues until no one calls a bet, or the hole plays out to the end. In the event that two players tie the hole, they would split the pot.
The last player standing, wins the group and advances to the final 25. The buy in is $10,000 and if you win your group, you are on a freeroll. I got a really lucky draw playing against a pretty weak field. I went in expecting to be the worst golfer in my group, but it turned out that I was the best golfer in the group. My strategy going in was to take some gambles, but that all changed when I realized I was better off avoiding big risks. Kinda like avoiding coinflips. My group was Andy Bloch, Chris Ferguson, Dr.Murray who I played with last year, and a sweet lady named January Jones. -Andy Bloch, the longest hitter in the group when he got a hold if it and kept it straight. That was rare however. His strategy was to take some big risks and try to get all my chips in one hole. -Chris Ferguson, has a major slice. It is 100% related to his grip. There is no way he can hit it straight with that grip, and his caddie/coach must have been blind not to notice! Chris folded after the tee on all of the first nine holes before going all in on the 10th. -Dr.Murray, seemed like a threat, he was longer than me but also very inconsistent. -January Jones, she had a caddie with her, but he had no clue how the betting worked and was awful as a financial adviser. He gave her terrible advice and I kind of felt bad for her. -Me, bruised ribs kept me from hitting balls, but not from chipping and putting. Luckily I put together a decent enough swing to keep the ball in play. A quick wrap up of the key holes: On the front nine I won four of the holes, winning both par 3’s. Bloch was a thorn in my side, though, pushing me out of pots and costing me a lot of chips in certain spots where I decided to fold and wait for a better situation. After nine holes: Negreanu 13,000
Dr. Murray 13,000
Bloch 12,900
Feguson 7,900
Jones 3200 On hole #10 Ferguson finally kept a ball in play! Jones hit one decent and I hit one close to Ferguson. The lady went all in for 2400, I called, and Ferguson went all in for 7100. I had to call Chris! The lady hit it well short of the green, I came up just a little short, and Ferguson hit a shot to the back of the green leaving himself a long putt. The lady hit a bad shot over the green, I hit a pretty good chip in a tough spot and had about 12 feet for par. Ferguson wound up like a baseball hitter and absolutely crushed his putt well off the green!
I hit my putt to about a foot, and Chris left his next putt on the fringe. He needed to make and hit an excellent putt that just missed. I knocked out both of them on that hole and got my bankroll to 24,900. On hole #11 I hit a good drive, Murray was in the hazard, and Bloch was just behind me about 5 yards but in the rough and at a bad angle to the green. I bet 1600 and Bloch shipped it all in. Pressure was on and I stuck my best shot of the day, a 4-iron to about 18 feet. Bloch hit a wild shot way left. I hit my putt to 3 inches, and Bloch needed an absolute miracle up and down on a chip Tiger Woods would have trouble getting to 6 feet. He missed the green and was gone. By that point I had 37,000 to Dr.Murray’s 13,000. We had some betting on the next hole until he was on the green but a long way from the hole, and I was just over the green with a fluffy lie to chip from. He bet 3200 and I gladly called. He came up 5 feet short on his putt and all that chipping practice would need to come up big for me now… I hit the chip to 6 inches! I put him all in for his last 6600 and he folded. Close decision. I doubled him up foolishly, actually the croupier was talking in my backswing and I thought that was the end of me. Luckily I hit a great bunker shot on 15 to win 9600 on the hole leaving him 3600. I again, on a par 3 hit a nice bunker shot and got up and down for par. It was overkill, as his tee shot went in the water and I won my match on the 16th hole. I saw Ivey had a big lead on 18 but I hear he lost in extra holes. Allen Cunningham and Ray Romano were in the group in front of me, and I don’t know if Ray won, but I hear Allen lost. I wanted to bet everything I had on the following three guys winning: David Benyamine, Shun Ujida, and David Oppenhiem. David and Shun are really good golfers, and while Oppenhiem isn’t as good he can bomb it off the tee. I can’t beat him from the same tees in this format, no chance really. I wouldn’t get to play because he would just bet me out after the tee shot. He’ll have 80 yards in to my 160 yards. No chance. I don’t know who I play tomorrow but it will be fun. I don’t expect to win at all, my ribs are still sore and I don’t have my A game in terms of ball striking, but I’ll just hope to gamble with the boys around the greens. If I can do that, I could get lucky and make the final. I was twittering updates on my REALKidPoker account and plan to again tomorrow. Tee times start at 10:00am until 11:30am. Five groups of five and I expect to be in the last group at 11:30am.
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