As I was logging in to post an update about the World Tavern Poker Open I just noticed that I never blogged about the WSOP. I must've written status updates or notes on FB but never an official blog. So before I talk about this last week I just want to type a quick update just so it's documented in here. I don't think I'll ever forget my first WSOP tournament but just in case I'm typing it up now...
So last June/July 4 of us won seats and played in a $1,000 WSOP event. Tim Harris finished in 1st, I jumped to 2nd ahead of Marty Pipoly (who finished 3rd), and Duane Hughes held on to the 4th seat when both Brian Kelly and Pam Barnett couldn't get one last cash in. Brian finished in 5th, and if you read my next blog you'll notice that it's a common theme :(
Anyways, there were two Day 1's for the $1000 events. Marty and I played in the same event but on different starting days and then Tim and Duane played the same event on the same day. I was first to play and man I didn't like the 3,000 chip starting stacks. Sure I liked the 25/25 blinds going up every hour so we started with 120 Big blinds which is a good starting stack but still if people started to bet crazy you could go out just like that. Luckily my tables ended up being good. I get AK the very first hand I make it 125 and everyone folds. I also got Aces at my first table a couple times. After an hour or two of playing my table got broke up and I moved all the way to Table 1- They were breaking from high to low so being at table 1 I knew I would be at that table for the rest of the day. So it's a good thing I liked my table. No one was playing too crazy. We all just kind of grinded the rest of the day and only knocked out a few players. I was up and down though early on. Finally I managed to build up a stack and hold onto it. I was surprised at what people were raising. Pretty much 2.5 times the blind and people would fold. We looked at the stats during the dinner break and I think we figured out at that point 4 people were going out every minute. It was crazy... We even ended the night early due to all of the people busting...
So Day1 A of Event #47 began with 1,759 players. We started at Noon and played until 11:20pm So almost 11.5 hours but we did have an hour and half dinner break plus a 20 minute break every 2 hours. But that's still a long day of poker. We finished with 270 players. I was so exicted to have made it past the first day. I looked at other events and pretty much if you made it to day 2 you cash... So I was pretty excited. I finished the day with about 19,000 chips (I think) and around 14 big blinds. Marty played Day1 B and ended up making it to the dinner break but in the end couldn't finish the day out. This is where his rule "Women Can't Fold" became popular. After the first hour he had doubled his chip stack but he got crippled by a lady later. I can't remember the stories but I think one hand he pushed with pocket 10's or 9's and a girl called with pocket 8's and hit her set on the river. Then I think the hand he went out he flopped two pair and someone called with top pair and then paired his other card on the river giving him a bigger two pair. Marty still made a good run though.
So after Day 1A and Day 1B ends the field is left at 476 players. The total number entrants was 3,128. So starting Day 2 I had already made it to the top 15%. 324 players were going to be getting paid so I just had to outlast 150 or so people. I was feeling pretty good as I watched the monitor with the number of people drop... I got into a couple bad hands though and it screwed me. The day before 2.5x raise was buying the blinds and even that day people were min raising and getting people to fold. So if I was getting into a hand I wanted to try to raise it. So I look down at Q,9 and should've just folded but I was in late position so I thought I could steal the blinds so I raised 2.5x and then the button re-raised and the big blind pushed. I obviously let my hand go along with probably 1/8th of my chips. They had KK vs AK. So I just picked a bad hand to raise. I was starting to get flustered though. I look down at pocket 5's and I didn't know what to do. Someone raised pre-flop 2.5 or 3x the blind and I should've shipped my chips in. I was down to probably 12 blinds and at that point it was all in or fold. I got scared though. I didn't want to be all in so close to the money. So I just make the call. The flop didn't hit me but I should've pushed. But I checked and the raiser checked. The turn was nothing and I figured since the guy checked the flop my 5's might be good so I decided to min bet to see if I could take it down. I probably should've pushed there too. The river was nothing and at this point I was already frustrated about giving chips away so I didn't bet again. Or maybe I did but I got re-raised all in. The guy had tons of chips and I'm sure he was bluffing me with Ace high but I didn't want to risk it. I played the hand all wrong. Pre-flop I should've either pushed or folded. But instead I called off probably 1/3 of my stack. I'm getting really nervous now. The monitor shows 350 people left but it had been at 350 for like 20 minutes so I don't think they updated it yet... I have 8 blinds left and it's getting close... normally anything less than 10 times the blind you should be pushing with. Greg Raymer said 12x and you have one move- all in or fold. We were so close to the money though... I didn't know what to do. I should've walked away from the table after I lost that pot with my 5's. But Brian wasn't around he didn't want to make me nervous watching. Although it would've been nice to see a friendly face so I could go talk and ask him what he would do. Marty was also in the room working so I was all alone. Well not completely alone. I saw Tom on the sidelines watching.
Anyways, I look down at AJ and thought ok am I playing to min cash or am I playing to win? I was playing to win so with 8 big blinds left I pushed all in. I was kind of hoping I would just pick up the blinds but I got a call. When I flipped over my AJ the other guy winced I was like oh, you got a weaker Ace? And sure enough he had A,10. I was like oh that's ok because your 10 is coming... I could just feel it. The flop was nothing but the 10 came on the turn. I was down to a 3 outer... I had to hit my Jack to stay alive but nope it didn't come and just like that I was out. I had my chips in with the best hand and the guy hit his 3 outer. It sucked. It sucked a lot... Here I was in a WSOP event and played so well on Day 1 making it to the 2nd day and I go out just shy of the money. I figured I finished somewhere between 330 and 345. Tom congratulated me on a job well done but it just wasn't good enough. I left the room and heard an announcement then clapping/cheering I was going to walk back in to see what they announced but figured it was they were at the bubble and I didn't want to hear that so I took the long walk down the hallways of the RIO making it back to my room. I was frustrated and depressed. I made it all that way and got nothing... I mean sure it was an awesome experience but I wanted to cash. I wanted to win a bracelet and the $485+k for 1st... I walked back to the room and jumped on the computer and learned that 15 minutes after I went out they posted on the website that they were down for hand for hand play and 327 players... they just needed to lose 3 more people and everyone was in the money. I'm not sure how fast they are at posting updates so maybe that announcement that I heard when I was down the hall was the hand for hand one so in that case I missed it by like 5 minutes... Once down to hand for hand play I think I would've folded every hand until 3 people busted since I'm sure there were tons of people with less than 8 times the blind. It took 45 minutes and finally everyone was in the money. I was so close... I was proud I finished in the top 10.5-11% but it was just frustrating to get that far and come up short. Granted a min cash was only $1886 but still that's better than nothing. I played so well the first day and so poorly the 2nd. I was playing scared. I should've pushed with my 5's. Although who knows maybe the guy actually had a good hand and I would've been out. I'll never know. But yeah my A,J holds up against A,10 and all of a sudden I have 16x blind and that would've been plenty enough to get me into the money. I guess busting out when I did was better than being 325th and I'm still glad I made it to day 2 vs busting out on day 1 but I guess if you look at it I got the same thing the other 3 guys (Tim, Duane, and Marty) that busted out on Day 1 got. Nothing. lol.
It was an awesome experience though. I'll definitely be back next year. Whether I win another seat or if I save up my bankroll to buy myself in. I don't know if I'll ever get as far as I did this last time but I'm sure going to try. I'm a good player and one of these times it's going to pay off. We've started up the WSOP league again only playing 2 games back to back once a month. We'll fit in 16 games and I'm hoping at least 4 people will get to play in the WSOP again. I'm off to a good start with back to back wins in game 1 and 2. I've been playing very well lately and hope I continue to do well. Heartland Poker Tour next week...
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