50k Player's Championship Final Table 10 Jul 2011 1:36 AM (13 years ago)
Sorry about not blogging for a few days, I was catching up on some much needed rest and time with the family.
The final table was just a surreal experience. I arrived at Rio about a quarter to 3 with the final table scheduled to start at 3. As soon as I walk in the door there's a camera guy following me and filming me walk from the entrance to the Amazon Room. It was a really awkward experience for me, I didn't really know whether I was supposed to just act normal or do something silly. I'm not really one to ham it up for the camera, in fact I'd be much happier if the cameras weren't there at all.
So then I get near the Amazon Room and they whisk me off to do some photoshoots and some promo stuff for the ESPN broadcast that will air in a couple months. So I'm doing that stuff for like 15 minutes and then someone comes in and says the final table is about to start and that we need to get in there asap, and I get there and they're already almost done with the player introductions. I'm glad though because by this point I'm just ready to play.
The official final table is an 8 handed table, but we still had 9 people left since we had played until 5:30am the night before without being able to eliminate the last player. So while we're 9 handed we're still playing the mix games, and I run pretty good and chip up to nearly 3 million chips before someone was eliminated. Then as soon as we get down to 8 handed we take a half hour or so break and now we are playing no limit holdem for the rest of the final table. I would have preferred to play the mix games because I definitely felt like I had a bigger edge over the remaining field in some of the other non-nlhe games, but it is what it is and I still liked my spot playing nlhe.
Unfortunately pretty much nothing went right for me once we started playing exclusively nlhe. I don't think I ever won a pot that had more than a few chips in it. Every time I raised it seemed like someone picked up a big hand and 3-bet me, and I don't really feel like I was getting picked on or anything because quite a few of the hands ended up being shown and were all strong hands.
So by the time we get down to 6 handed I'm last in chips with like 2 million, and then I pretty much blinded down to about 1.2 million when I finally pick up a big hand with AKo. Matt Glantz opens utg for 150k at 30k/60k and I'm in the cutoff and obviously I shove, and it folds back to Matt and he tanks for like 3 minutes. Obviously I would have liked him to call here as I'm pretty sure I had him dominated but he eventually folds.
So maybe like 5-10 hands later I get QTdd utg and raise to 125k having started the hand with about 1.4 million. Minh Ly calls on the button and everyone else folds. Flop comes AsQs6h and I check to Minh because I'm pretty sure he'll bet pretty much always here and I feel like I can get the most value from my hand by letting him take control of the pot. I have no plans of folding at any point in this hand because I know I'm crushing his range here and he likes to keep firing when he senses weakness. So anyway I check and he fires 150k and I think for a bit and call. Turn comes ten of spades putting 3 spades out there and making me 2 pair. I check again and he fires 380k, and I still feel like he can have tons of weak hands in his range where he's trying to push me off a marginal hand, and also some hands with decent equity where he hopes he can get me to fold, like something like KsTx, so anyway I shove at this point for like 1.1 million total because I'm more than happy to just take this pot at this point with the way the board looks. I considered just calling and checking any river to him again but I'm happy with how I played it. Unfortunately for me he instantly called and obviously I knew I was in terrible shape and he turned over 87ss for the flush. River came the 3c and I was eliminated in 6th place for 300k. Considering where I was on day 4, down to 17k chips at 40k/80k limit with like 13 people left, I definitely can't complain at all about finishing 6th, but obviously going into the final table I did have much higher hopes.
Then as soon as I bust all I want to do is find my wife and get paid out and leave. But then they ask me to do an interview. I said no at first but they kind of pressured me into it so I did it. I think it was a little awkward because they asked me about my bustout hand and I'm really bad at explaining my thought process in an interview situation, my mind just wanders all over the place and I end up not making much sense. So that lasts for a couple minutes and now I think I can just go get paid and leave, but then another girl grabs me and says they need to do more promo/interview stuff with me. At this point I'm just getting annoyed but I don't want to come off like a complete jerk so I just say to make it quick. Unfortunately we have different definitions of 'quick' and all this stuff ends up taking like a half hour. I actually didn't mind doing this stuff as much as the previous stuff though. This was stuff like saying "5 DAYS" "8 GAMES" "THIS IS THE POKER PLAYER'S CHAMPIONSHIP" and was actually kind of fun to do. Then they took me into another room where I was asked to do some strategy interview for a new segment they're going to do on ESPN. Basically stuff like asking me what advantage do live pros have over online pros and vice versa, and what I thought of my fellow final tablers. This part was a little annoying for me because they wanted me to incorporate the question into my answer and I kept forgetting to do it and had to repeat my answers, but I think I came up with some good answers.
So finally I get to payouts and that part goes quickly at least and then I have a nice dinner with my wife, which was the first time we've had a nice dinner alone the whole series. I was just glad we were able to find a babysitter to take care of the baby and she was able to come out to my final table, since we weren't able to for my o8 final table.
Been an interesting series so far, I feel like I've been both really lucky and yet somewhat unlucky at the same time. Lucky in that both of my cashes are really nice cashes and in both of them I was the short stack with around 15 people left and ended up finishing 2nd and 6th, so I definitely got my share of rungood in those crucial spots. Without that I'd just have 2 mincashes. On the other hand I've had nice stacks in a few other tourneys this year and definitely could have cashed in about 5 other tourneys if not for unfortunate events close to the bubble. But obviously overall I could never complain about having nearly $600k in cashes in a series, considering my best series previously was probably around $60k in cashes.
I play the main event tomorrow. I'm definitely glad I chose to play day 1d because I needed a few days off after playing every day for 5 weeks straight. I feel really refreshed right now and am ready to do some good things in the main event. Obviously I need tons of rungood for the main but anything can happen.
WSOP Day 36, 50k Player's Championship Day 4 6 Jul 2011 5:28 AM (13 years ago)
You guys get the quick quick version because I'm sure most of you were following me anyway, but basically I started the day off good and got above 2 mil which was close to the chipleaders, then as the bubble approached I lost a lot of hands and was down to 500k, then the bubble burst and I lost more hands and I folded a triple draw hand with probably like 500k in the pot on the end with only 17k behind. So whatever I think I'm probably done. Then I quadruple up and triple up on the next 2 hands to get to over 200k and stuck around 200-500k for the next few hours, basically winning every time I was all in and losing any time I wasn't. I had a few ridiculous suckouts to stay alive, hitting a 2 outer and a 3 outer in separate pots, then went on a massive heater at the end of the day and ended with 2,315,000 chips and am currently in 4th out of 9 people left.
I hope this is all coherent because it's like 6:30 am and I just got done playing for like 15 hours.
Anyone interested in hand histories just go to pokernews , I need to get a little sleep, we restart at 3pm. I'm pretty sure it will be shown on espn2 with a half hour delay, but don't quote me on that. I will tweet and let you all know where you can watch it though.
EDIT: I believe it's on espn3.com not espn2.
WSOP Day 35, 50k Player's Championship Day 3 5 Jul 2011 1:03 AM (13 years ago)
Entered the day with about 400k chips and ran kind of bad the first couple levels and was down as low as like 150k at one point, then I went on an absolutely enormous heater mostly in the stud games for the last 3 levels of the day and ended with 1,304,000 chips. I'm currently 3rd in chips with 29 people left, paying 16 spots. I feel like I'm playing absolutely great the last couple days, there was only one pot where I think I messed up today. It was a triple draw pot where I had a decent feeling the guy was trying to snow but I let the 3rd guy stay in the pot and he ended up outdrawing me. Another big pot I tried bluffing a stud pot with an ace doorcard where I checkraised 5th street against a guy with a 257 rainbow board and then bet the rest of the way, but he called me down with pocket QQs. I'm fine with that play though as I definitely think it works often enough in that spot to be profitable, and he definitely had a much stronger hand than he usually would have there.
It feels great to be in such a great position in this tourney considering I ran pretty bad all of day 1, then doubled up on a nlhe hand on day 2 to get back to the starting stack, then ran bad again for 2 more levels. I'm really happy that I was able to weather the storm without getting impatient or straying from my gameplan for this tourney. Also nice to play in such a well-structured tournament where you can run bad for over a day and still have a chance to win.
Table draw for day 4:
296 1 Jeffrey Lisandro 330000
296 2 George Lind 1,304,000
296 3 Gus Hansen 774,000
296 4 --empty-- --
296 5 Robert Mizrachi 500,000
296 6 Marco Johnson 570,000
296 7 David Oppenheim 159,000
296 8 Minh Ly 715,000
WSOP Day 34, 50k Player's Championship Day 2 4 Jul 2011 1:32 AM (13 years ago)
Started the day with about 80k which was about half the average stack, but the 3rd hand I pick up JJ in middle position at 500/1k blinds in NLHE. Erik Seidel limps, I raise to 4k, everyone folds to Erik who calls. Flop AJ2 rainbow, check to me, I bet like 5500, Erik checkraises to like 13k, I call. Turn is a 5, Erik bets like 19k I call. River is a 4, Erik bets 30k, I go all in for like 15k more and Erik tanks for a few minutes but finally calls and my hand is good. Pretty crucial getting a double up on the 3rd hand of the day. After that I hovered between like 120-160k for the next few levels, then went on a mini-rush in the 2nd to last level to get over 200k for the first time in the tourney. Then the last level I got down to like 150k with a half hour left in the day, then went on an enormous rush in the limit games, scooping like 8 pots out of the last 20 hands dealt, and ended the day with 398,500, which is probably around 10th in chips with 74 people left going into day 3.
Table draw for day 3:
Scott Clements 213000 Amazon / 296 / 1
Andrey Zaichenko 291000 Amazon / 296 / 2
George Lind 398500 Amazon / 296 / 3
John Hennigan 204300 Amazon / 296 / 5
Phil Hellmuth 271200 Amazon / 296 / 6
David Oppenheim 608000 Amazon / 296 / 7
Benjamin Lamb 704500 Amazon / 296 / 8
WSOP Day 33, 50k Player's Championship 3 Jul 2011 12:11 PM (13 years ago)
Event 55, $50k 8-game: Had a really tough table all day with Bill Chen, Robert Williamson, Daniel Negreanu, me, David Bach, Joe Cassidy, Barry Greenstein, and Brett Richey, in that order. Obviously there aren't many easy tables in this tournament but there are definitely better ones than that. I pretty much went on a slow downward slide all day in the limit games, but picked up a few big nlhe pots to stay afloat, which is pretty much the opposite of what my plan was. I think my biggest strength is the limit games in this format, but sometimes that's just the way the cards work. The last level I was really unhappy with how I played a stud8 hand where I definitely could have bluff raised the river and won the pot. My board was Th4h6hKc and I had split tens from the start, and his was 7c9c9s6s, and he value bet 2 pair into me on the river in a spot where he's usually just betting a low, since I had bet every street previously, but if he reraises my raise he almost always has a low and in that case it's hard for him to have 10s beat, so if I raise the river obviously it's a really tough call for him to make with just 2 pair. It's a play I know to make but for some reason just didn't think he'd be betting 2 pair very often there. Also another triple draw hand where I was upset at myself for now snowing in a pretty obvious spot. Funny thing is I probably would have lost the pot anyway but still annoyed that I didn't make the correct play.
I ended the day with 80,800 which is about half of average stack. The good news is we still have plenty of play left as the next level is only 2k/4k for the limit games and 500/1k for the big bet games.
Here is my seat draw for day 2:
Tom McCormick 150800 Amazon / 364 / 1
Marco Johnson 138000 Amazon / 364 / 2
George Danzer 192200 Amazon / 364 / 3
Ashton Griffin 190200 Amazon / 364 / 4
Alexander Kravchenko 107900 Amazon / 364 / 5
Erik Seidel 147200 Amazon / 364 / 6
George Lind 80800 Amazon / 364 / 7
Dan Shak 87600 Amazon / 364 / 8
WSOP Day 32 1 Jul 2011 11:35 PM (13 years ago)
"I did nothing. I did absolutely nothing, and it was everything that I thought it could be."
50k Player's Championship at 5pm tomorrow.
WSOP Day 31 1 Jul 2011 4:26 PM (13 years ago)
Sorry forgot to post this last night.
$1500 PLO8: Lasted a long time in this one but never had more than about 3x the starting stack. Got down to the final 150 people or so out of 900 with 10k chips at 500/1000 blinds, utg opened for 2200, I pick up Ad2d2h3h in the small blind and flat call. I feel like raising is pretty bad here because I doubt he's really folding anything and I'd rather be able to get away from some bad flops if I need to. So anyway big blind folds, and flop comes QT8 with 2 hearts. Not the best flop for me but I do have a pair and a baby flush draw and a really good backdoor low draw. So I lead for 5400 (the size of the pot) since I have some stuff working for me and also I should have some fold equity if he completely missed the flop, and he puts me all in for about 2k more. He flips over KK45 with no flush draw which I'm in pretty good shape against, probably a slight favorite. I hit a 3 on the turn which is a decent card for me, meaning any heart or any card lower than an 8 and I will survive, unfortunately I don't hit on the river and bust with about 15 minutes left in the day.
Taking a day off today because the ladies event is the only event today, then I have the 50k Player's Championship tomorrow at 5pm.
WSOP Day 30 30 Jun 2011 3:27 AM (13 years ago)
Event 50k, $5k NLHE: Late registered and had about the starting stack when I went to dinner break where the waiter spilled Coke all over me. Luckily it didn't really show once it dried and even more luckily I was at a decent restaurant and hadn't ordered yet and the manager came over and said they'd comp my meal. So I played it like any good poker player would and ordered the shrimp cocktail with the filet mignon and the lobster tail. It was quite tasty but it was even tastier since it was free. After dinner I got back to the poker but not for very long. Bustout hand I had 12k or so at 200/400, I raise utg to 850 with KK, person 2 spots behind me calls, big blind calls. Flop comes J97 with 2 clubs, bb checks, I can tell that the cold caller likes the flop so I check intending to checkraise him. Cold caller bets a little over 2k, the big blind checkraises to like 5k. I'm not crazy about my hand at this point but I'm pretty sure I can't fold, so I go all in for my last 11k or so. Cold caller pretty much snap shoves for like 35k and big blind tanks for a few seconds but finally calls. Cold caller has QQ and big blind has 77, board runs out with blanks and the 77 wins and I bust. Kind of an annoying hand in that if the QQ 3-bets preflop then almost certainly the 77 folds and we get it in and I double up, but oh well.
I also played the $2250 mega-satellite for the $50k 8-game, I only made it thru 6 of the games before I busted. Was the first satellite I've played at the WSOP in probably 4 years.
I remember back in the early 2000s I would go to the WSOP for a week or 2 every year and just grind the single-table satellites and mega satellites and occasionally some cash games, and I barely played any of the actual events. I think from 2001-2006 I played maybe like 5 events total and didn't go even remotely deep in any of them. 2007 was the first year that I really started playing events, I think I played like 15 that year, and then have played between 35 and 40 each year since 2008. I'm not sure why but back then the actual events just didn't interest me at all back then, and now I can't really get motivated to play anything but the actual events. It's really is a different culture now though at the WSOP. The events didn't hold near the prestige back then that they do now, and obviously the prize pools were way smaller.
Got $1500 PLO8 at noon tomorrow which is a great value event, and then $2500 Mixed Holdem at 5pm.
WSOP Day 29, Trifecta Accomplished 29 Jun 2011 1:29 AM (13 years ago)
Event 47, $2500 Omaha8/Stud8, Day 2: Came into the day with 9400 chips playing 600/1200, lost the first 2 hands I played and was busto within like half an hour.
Event 48, $1500 NLHE: Got in this just as late reg was closing and stayed around the starting stack until right before dinner when I picked up AA and tripled up to get to around 10k. After dinner I had a hand where I flatted a raise in the cutoff at 150/300 with QTcc and the big blind called too. Flop came Q75 with 2 hearts, and the big blind led for 1600, the original raiser folded, and I went all in for like 7k more and he thought for a while before finally calling with A5hh, ace on the river. I don't think I've made day 2 of a NLHE tournament yet this year.
Event 49, $2500 Triple Draw: One of my best games. Had pretty good tables throughout the day and got my stack up around 20k just after the last break but then got moved to a new table and didn't win a hand, and in triple draw your chips can go quickly if you don't win any hands, as mine did, and I busted with about 20 minutes left in the day.
I doubt I'll do the daily WSOP blog updates next year, it's just too much of a grind and probably boring you guys a little. :) It seems silly to quit now though with only like 5 days of prelims left. I hope if anything you all can appreciate how much of a grind the WSOP becomes though.
$5k NLHE tomorrow at noon.
WSOP Day 28 29 Jun 2011 1:23 AM (13 years ago)
Sorry forgot to update this yesterday...
Event 46, $10k 6-max NLHE: This one didn't really go as planned, I late registered in the 150/300/25 level and within 20 minutes I had lost half of my stack to get down to around 15k. My last hand I pick up 66 in the small blind and it's folded to me and I open for 900 and the big blind calls. The flop comes 457 with 2 diamonds and I lead for 1200, he makes it like 3500, I go all in for 15k and he thinks for a bit and calls with 98dd, hits a diamond on the turn (and the river for good measure) and I'm busto in like half an hour.
Event 47, $2500 Omaha8/Stud8: This was such a great value tournament for me. I was at tables where people were definitely in a gambling mood and hit my share of pots early but ran a little bad at the end to end the day at 9400 chips.
WSOP Day 27, Bubble Time 27 Jun 2011 12:00 AM (13 years ago)
Event 44, $2500 Razz, Day 2: Ran my stack up to like 80k at one point which was probably close to the chiplead, but then lost a few big pots as we neared the bubble. With 44 left and 40 spots being paid I was down to about 20k playing 2500/5000 and called an early position raise with (74)2 with him having (xx)3. My board ran out (74)2848(4) while his ran out (xx)3TAT(x) with me betting every street including the river. He pretty much instacalled my river bet with an 87 and I was down to 1200 chips after that hand. I'm not sure if he would have called if he just had a ten low but obviously that's what I was hoping for. Then after the hand I look up at the board and see we're down to 41 players now, having lost 3 players in the minute or so it took to play that hand. There's pretty much no way I would have played the hand in the first place if I had known we were down to 41 already but obviously with me thinking we're still 4 spots from the money I want to try to accumulate chips still. Anyway next hand I get 953 and go with it since I'm basically all in anyway, end up making a jack low against a better jack low and bust out exactly on the bubble in 41st place.
$10k 6-max NLHE at noon tomorrow and $2500 omaha8/stud8 mix at 5pm.
WSOP Day 26 26 Jun 2011 3:29 AM (13 years ago)
Event 43, $1500 NLHE: Won an early allin with AQ vs AK and eventually ran my stack up to about 13k from the starting stack of 4500 by level 6, but then lost a big allin with KK vs AQ and was down to like 2k at that point, and the last hand before dinner I got allin with AK vs 88 and busted.
Event 44, $2500 Razz: Had a pretty good table draw with some people gambling a little too much and a few other pretty tight players. Was a really swingy day for me, I was up to 24k from the 7500 starting stack just after dinner break, then a couple hours later I was down to like 5k, then an hour or 2 later I ended the day with 34k which is probably top 5 in chips going into day 2.
$1k NLHE is the only tourney starting tomorrow but the odds are pretty slim I'll be in it, I'd have to run extremely bad in day 2 of the razz and bust in the first hour.
WSOP Day 25, At Least I Played for 6 Hours Today 24 Jun 2011 9:57 PM (13 years ago)
Event 41, $1500 Limit Holdem Shootout: Really got a pretty good table draw with only a few good players but just kept getting coolered and was down to below 1k after the first hour, somehow I hung on for another hour or so before busting.
Event 42, $10k PLO: Got it in in huge pots as a small dog twice in fairly standard spots, won the first one to get to around 45k, lost the 2nd one to get down to 20k, lost some more small pots to get down to like 14k. Pick up KQQh8h on the button at 2/4, open for 1100, bb calls, flop 772 with one heart, bb checks I bet 1100 he checkraises to like 3600 i minraise to like 6300 he minraises to 9k, I feel like he can be on air at least some of the time but I don't know how often (maybe never?, I dunno he was young) plus I should have something like 10-15% equity most of the time so he doesn't have to be bluffing very often for me to go all in, anyway, I raise all in and he snap calls, and has A7xx, I hit a king on the turn to pick up a couple outs but blank on the river.
$1500 donkament at noon tomorrow and $2500 razz at 5pm.
WSOP Day 24, Even Shorter Day 23 Jun 2011 9:16 PM (13 years ago)
Event 40, $5k NLHE 6-max: Registered before the first ante level, about 20 minutes in I lost half my stack with A4 vs Q6 on a 44766 board where I checked the flop, bet the turn, then puke-called on the river when he bet full pot. If I was any good maybe I can find a fold there on the river but I'm not much for making hero folds. Maybe 10 minutes later cutoff raises to 450, small blind calls, I ship about 6k with 98c because I know cutoff can be pretty wide and small blind probably almost never has a hand he can call with, anyway opener has JJ and I lose.
$1500 Limit holdem shootout at noon and $10k PLO at 5pm tomorrow.
WSOP Day 23, My Shortest Day So Far 22 Jun 2011 7:10 PM (13 years ago)
Event 37, $10k HORSE, Day 2: My 34k stack was down to like 10k after playing the stud8 round, then I went on a rush in the holdem and omaha rounds to get back up to like 50k. Had a really silly spot in the stud round where I accidentally raised when I meant to call and it cost me 6k although I did have a big draw anyway so it wasn't really a terrible raise but since my draw missed, obviously it was. :) Anyway got whittled down to like 15k then my last hand in stud I raise with (A6)6 2 diamonds, get called by a king, we get it all in by 5th when I have 66A84 with 4 diamonds and he has (Q8)K4Q, but I brick 6th and 7th and he wins with queens. Kind of a weird spot for him to get involved with KQ8 with me raising first after the bringin and pretty obviously having a hand I'm not planning on folding since I only had 15k left at 2k/4k but whatever it's probably not terrible anyway.
Event 39, $2500 PLH/PLO: Errrrrr. Ummmmm. 2nd hand I'm the big blind, 2 limpers, button raises to 400 at 50/100, I call with 6643ddss, limpers call. Flop comes Q86 wtih a diamond and a spade, check around to button who pots it, I repot it to basically go all in, first limper pretty much instantly goes all in which is a pretty bad sign for my hand since she should have an overset pretty often. Button calls and limper has 88xx and button has KJT9 and it turns out both my backdoor flush draws are live at least. Seems like a pretty unavoidable spot for me considering how the action played out. Anyway board pairs and I make the lower full house to bust on the 2nd hand.
5k 6-max NLHE at noon tomorrow, I'll probably late register during the ante levels.
WSOP Day 22 22 Jun 2011 2:58 AM (13 years ago)
Event 35, $5k PLO, Day 2: Went into the day really short on chips with about 20k with blinds 600/1200 with the average around 70k, but got it in with QQ65 double suited against some AAxx hand, hit a 5 on the flop and a 5 on the turn to double up to like 46k. A few hands later I triple barrel bluffed with the bare ace on a flush board and he finally folded on the river, and I got my stack to around 80k with like 80 people left when I get this hand. I open under the gun with AhKhQx6x to 3200 at 800/1600, Tom Dwan calls next to act, and the big blind calls. Flop comes Ad3h4h, big blind checks to me, I bet 6500, Dwan calls after thinking a bit, big blind folds. Turn comes 7h and I lead out for 13,500 and after thinking for a while Dwan raises to about 29,500 and I immediately see the possible straight flush but I don't feel like I'm deep enough to fold and folding is probably pretty bad against someone like him anyway. So anyway I shove for like 40k more and he snap calls and I know I'm screwed before I even see his hand.
Event 36, $2500 NLHE: Late reg'd for this after busting the PLO, only lasted like a half hour, got it in with top pair against a set in what may very well have been an ambitious spot, but I mean we were only like 35bb deep at that point, hit 2 pair on the turn to pick up 4 outs but missed the river.
Event 37, $10k HORSE: Ran really bad for the first 6 levels of this and my stack was below 15k at one point from the starting stack of 30k and it looked like I might be able to pull off the trifecta of bustouts for today, but then I picked up some hands including being rolled up on 2 consecutive hands in stud and winning pretty good pots on both hands. Also had fun in a razz round where I went all 8 hands without looking at my hole cards on any of the hands, folding 6 of them because I had a big card and raising the other 2 and stealing the antes because it was folded to me with a small card. Razz is such a silly game really. Anyway I ended the day with 34k which is probably close to average.
$1500 NLHE at noon tomorrow and $2500 PLH/PLO at 5pm, will play either one depending on if/when I bust from the HORSE.
WSOP Day 21 21 Jun 2011 12:51 AM (13 years ago)
Event 35, $5k PLO: Ran really good at the beginning including getting it in in a huge 3 way pot with AA and making a flush to scoop the pot. Got up to 62k by dinner which was probably close to the chip leaders. After dinner I got switched to a much harder table and also was pretty card dead and basically slowly spewed chips for 4 hours and ended the day with just over 20k chips, with the average stack being 70k. About 110 people left with 48 spots paid. Restart at 2:30.
Gonna play the $10k horse tomorrow if I bust the PLO, really looking forward to this event as I feel I don't have any weak games in HORSE and the mix game events really suit me well.
WSOP Day 20 19 Jun 2011 11:59 PM (13 years ago)
Event 33, $10k Stud8, Day 2: blah blah lost every hand i played and busted in like 20 minutes, no fun.
Event 34, $1k NLHE: Got my stack over 10k and actually made a dinner break finally in a noon event, but busted on the 2nd hand after dinner when i ran QQ into AK.
Hilarious hand from the $1k today, on the river David Bach bets all in for his last 800 or so into a pot that had at least 6k in it already, the board is AQ9J8 with no flush possibility, his opponent tanks for at least a minute and asks David "Do you have the ace?" while it looks like he's mulling over a call with a pretty weak hand, finally he calls and David flips over AJ obviously thinking he's going to win, and the other guy flips over QT for the straight. It was pretty ambiguous as to whether he was intentionally trying to slowroll or was just really not very smart, but the whole hand was pretty funny. Even David laughed at how silly the whole situation was as he was walking away. If any pro did that they'd probably get scorned at the very least but really all you can do is laugh when an amateur does something like that.
WSOP Day 19 19 Jun 2011 1:38 AM (13 years ago)
Event 33, $10k Stud8: Really weird day, I had a very passive table and the pots were really small all day. My stack was between about 24-30k all day and I ended the day with 24,700. We restart at 3pm.
Sorry about the little rant a couple days ago, I really don't feel bad or sad or whatever, but you guys get the worst of me on these updates sometimes because I'm usually blogging right after I busted from something. I consider myself very lucky to even be in a position where I can play all of these events every year and I really do enjoy it even during the bad stretches.
I think the biggest frustration for me this year is that after my 2nd place finish I had a great shot at winning player of the year if I could just get a few decent cashes to go along with it, but I haven't really gotten anything going in any other tournaments. I was in 8th place in POTY standings I think after my cash and now I'm in 19th. I definitely still have a shot at it but I would need to run pretty good in the next couple weeks to get there. I actually have no idea what the player of the year wins but I do know it would be really neat to win it.
WSOP Day 18 17 Jun 2011 9:23 PM (13 years ago)
Event 31, $3k PLO: I feel like PLO is about my 10th best game if I were playing against good players, but these PLO fields at the WSOP are always so ridiculously juicy. I chipped up from 9k to about 14k in the first few levels, then got it in with KQJ9 against T876 on a T97 board. Without running it I'd guess I'm about 50/50 here, he might be a very slight favorite since he has 4 full house outs. I hit a jack on the turn to make a higher straight but his full house outs came into play when the 7 came on the river and I was down to about 2k chips. A few hands later I get it in with JT97 on a T95 flop in a 3 way pot, I'm up against another guy with T9xx and the other guy has 55xx, so basically I have 4 win outs and 2 chop outs, plus other backdoor straight and flush draws. Unfortunately he hit a 5 on the turn to end all suspense.
$1500 NLHE tomorrow which I don't know whether I'll play yet, because I definitely want to play the $10k stud8 at 5pm, an event I got 10th in last year.
WSOP Day 17 16 Jun 2011 11:48 PM (13 years ago)
Event 29, $2500 10-game: I ended up skipping the $1500 NLHE to make sure I could play this, as I think this event is probably one of the best values for me. Really never got much going, kept losing my chips in limit games then doubled up twice in plo, but just kept making second-best hands over and over in spots where I have to pay off, and ended up busting in level 7.
The grind is definitely starting to get to me a little, I have only 1 cash in 19 events so far. I know obviously the one cash was a really good one, so who am I to complain really, but it's funny how poker screws with your head. I haven't gotten even remotely deep in anything in the last week or so. Was really looking forward to quite a few of the events this week and I didn't do anything in any of them. I mean I feel like I'm playing fine still and that's all I can do. I really have no idea how people play tournaments all year round without going insane.
3k PLO at 5pm tomorrow.
WSOP Day 16 16 Jun 2011 1:02 AM (13 years ago)
Event 26, $2500 6-max NLHE: Busted pretty quickly in this one, called a guy down with JJ on a KKxxx board, thought he could be bluffing, he wasn't.
Event 27, $10k Limit Holdem: Ran really good in the first 4 levels, picking up tons of big pairs and a few sets and I turned 30k into 58k by dinner which was probably one of the top stacks. After dinner was a different story, I doubt I won more than like 3 pots in the next 4 hours and busted with about 15 minutes left in the day.
$1500 NLHE at noon but I might skip this to make sure I can play the $2500 10-game at 5pm, not sure yet, I'll see how I'm feeling tomorrow.
WSOP Day 15 14 Jun 2011 10:06 PM (13 years ago)
Event 24, $5k NLHE Shootout: Had a ridiculously hard table with people like durrr, charder, Shannon Shorr, and Ashton Griffin, and really an entire table of people who are good players. Somehow I chipped up from 15k to 40k in the first 4 hours without ever really winning a big pot, then I went really card dead when we were short handed, and ended up heads up with a 135k to 15k chip deficit. I won an all in with KJ vs AT when I hit a jack on the river, then I slowly chipped up to around 50k to his 100k. With blinds 600/1200, we get it in preflop and I have 66 against his AQ, flop is ace high with 2 hearts, turn is a heart giving me a flush draw, but I blank the river to finish 2nd at my table.
Event 25, $1500 Stud8: Busted just in time to register for this one, and I wish I hadn't. Had a great table draw with people ready to gamble, but unfortunately I never dragged a single chip and busted within about 40 minutes.
$2500 NLHE 6-max tomorrow at noon and $10k limit holdem at 5pm if I bust that.
WSOP Day 14 13 Jun 2011 11:57 PM (13 years ago)
Event 21, $10k Stud, Day 2: Went into the day pretty shortstacked but hung around for a few hours with not many chips, and then after all that waiting I got my last chips in with 22A vs 555, not exactly the best spot.
Event 23, $2500 8-game: Was really looking forward to this event. Unfortunately it didn't go well. I ran good in the limit games but in a NLHE hand I paid a guy off with pocket aces when he had a set, in a spot where I should probably lay it down but I paid him off for some reason. After that pot I ran good in the limit games again, but then lost all of it in a big plo pot where I got about 1/5 of my stack in preflop with AAK9 with one suit, and got the rest in on the KT8 rainbow flop, and the other guy had T875. Not much I can do there really, even against the hand he had I have about 36% equity, and I really think I could have gotten it in as a favorite a lot of the time since on the previous break I had heard him talking to his friends about how he was going to gamble it up in this tourney.
5k nlhe shootout at noon tomorrow, then 1500 stud8 at 5pm.