WSOP Event #2 NLHE $1500
This entry will be all about poker, so if you don't care about it, skip it. If you care about it, you can still skip it but you don't have to.
The event was the first official event, since Event #1 was for casino employees only and it was $1500 buy-in no limit hold'em. It was 2700 entrants in the event, 2200 registered and 500 alternates and all alternates made it in before the second level.
I was seated at a table with no recognizables whatsoever, and I knew that was a good thing. We started out with 1500 chips and 25/25 blinds and sixty minute levels. In the first level I raised it up to 75 with A-Q. I got one caller from the guy on my left and the flop came down Q-J-2 with two hearts. I bet 125 and he called. Turn was a low blank, I bet 250 and he called. River was a J and I checked, he thought a little and bet 400. There's plenty of hands I can still beat so I decided to call, he shows me A-J for the beautiful two out river. I was thinking immediately oh this is going to be a fun day, I'll be out in 15 minutes flat.
I get myself all the way down to 600 chips through blinds and I have A-8 offsuit in the small blind, the blinds are now 25/50 and there are three limpers and I toss in another 25 chip to complete the blind. Flop came A-10-3 all different suits. I check and everybody checks up to a player who I already thought was a weak player and he bets 150. It goes around to me and the only hand that I'm worried about is A-9. He'd raise A-K, A-Q, A-J and A-10 seems somewhat unlikely. I just thought he had a weak ace and A-9 seemed like the only thing that I was scared of. I decided to put it all in anyway as I might not get a better spot with my shortstack, it folds to him and he calls with A-6 and my hand holds up. Back to around 1400 chips. I'm at around 1750 when the next hand that goes to a showdown occurs. I raised two aces to 150, an asian guy makes a minimum raise to 300, I reraise it to 800 and he calls. Flop came down K-x-x
(x = irrelevant card under a ten) and I thought for a little and figured if I'm going to get action by anything I might as well put it in, I moved all-in and he calls with two queens and I busted him out. I'm at 3475 when the first break comes. This is also when Joe Cassidy gets moved two to my left.
The blinds were up to 50/100 and I play a hand against Joe real weak. He raises under the gun to 250, everybody folds to me, I'm in the small blind with A-K of hearts. I figured he's willing to gamble at this point as he got in the tournament really late as an alternate and only had 1500 chips so I didn't necessarily want a race. I thought I'd just smooth-call and play a flop. Flop came down all rags, I check, he bet 500 and he took it down. Nothing really happens after this, a guy tried to steal my blind and made it 450 on the button, I had two kings in the blind and raised to 1200 and he folded. I also double up the guy on my left when the cutoff raises to 250, I reraise to 700 with 9-9 and the blind pushes on my left. It's only a thousand more to me and I decided to call, he had A-Q and he won the race. A little later, I raise the big blind all-in from the button with A-10 and the small blind folds, the big blind calls all-in for 1100 with two deuces and it's my turn to win a flip. We play two more levels and it goes to the next break, in the second break I'm at 4400 with blinds about to be 100/200 with 25 ante.
I had already decided I'm kicking it up a notch when the antes kick in, every pot has 550 chips in it and that's a pretty large amount to add to my stack. I started raising a lot of pots and built my chips up. I also noticed two guys on my right liked to raise a lot of pots, and in three different instances I would flat-call them in position and take it away from them on the flop or the turn. Like in one hand the guy raises to 600, I call with Q-J. Flop came K-9-2 he bet another 800 and I just call. Turn he checks, I bet a thousand and he folds. A couple orbits later somebody raises my big blind and makes it 700 to go, I look down at A-7 and I put him allin for 2200 more. He folds and I get some more chips. I'm sitting right at 7700 when a guy in late position, two off the button raises to 1000. He only has another 1000 behind and I look down at A-8. I thought he was really weak when he made that kind of raise, I thought he'd either raise smaller with a real hand or push all-in with a medium pair of some sort. I thought he could have any small ace, KQ, KJ, KT, QJ, QT or JT. I definitely thought I was ahead even though it was a slight edge, I put him allin for the other thousand, fully knowing he has to call and he shows KQ. I win that pot and I'm at around 9000. I get to the high mark of 9950 about thirty minutes before the dinner break and the blinds are now 150/300 with 25 ante. I had no idea what the average was at this point, I thought I was slightly above average because our table was so inflated with chips taht even though I had near ten thousand I was fourth or fifth in chips at our table. That's when the crucial hand of the tournament for me played out. I had raised three times in one orbit, one time I raised with J-8 offsuit to 900 from middle position and a short-stack calls allin for 450 chips. I hated this for the plain reason that 450 chips doesn't matter to me but I had to show J-8 which would ruin my credibility. Prior to this I'd only shown down good hands. Two hands after J-8 that I lost, I raised to 900 with 9-9. It folds around to a reckless guy in the small blind who peeks at his cards and instantaneously pushes all-in. I ask for a count and it's 3650 more on top of my raise. I had a 9500 stack at this point and I had invested 900. I have 8600 if I fold and I will be in decent shape, I have 5000 if I call and lose. I'll be somewhere between 14 and 15 thousand if I call and win. A few orbits before this, I saw this guy make a really goofy play when he ended up winning a pot by calling a raise and a re-raise with A-9 of spades, flop a flushdraw and check-call all-in and hit a flush to double up so I had already thought that he was somewhat of a loose cannon. Then I started thinking that this is the fourth pot I raise in less than ten hands, and last one I showed was J-8 offsuit. He also pushed so very fast that I didn't think he was really strong, as I figured he would spend a little bit more time thinking about whether he could raise it less if he had a really big hand. The fact that he just moved in smelled a lot like A-K or A-Q to me. I also considered that he might push with any pair. I probably spent a good five minutes thinking about how to play this hand. In my mind, I had him as a 60% chance he's got two overcards, 30% he's got a smaller pair and 10% he'd wake up with a bigger pair than mine, but I thought that wasn't very likely. I put my chips in the middle and said call. My read was way off as he showed me two queens and I lost the pot. No sweat, I thought, I made a decision based on my read and I thought that if I had won that pot if he had two overcards I would've had such a big stack that I could just run over this table and pick up antes. I still wasn't out, but had some chips.
I get moved right after this hand to a table with only one known pro, Isabella Mercier. I only played a few hands before the dinner break and I left for the dinner break at 4450 chips. I come back after an hour and ten minutes, and the blinds are now 200/400 with 50 ante. I'm short but not desperately so, I'm just wishing I'll pick up a hand. I blind away down to about 3600 when Isabella who just had been involved in three or four pots in the last orbit limps in middle position, I have K-8 offsuit in the small blind. I thought about ditching it right here and saving the chips, but I also figured tossing in another 200 to win the 1500 out there might be a decent enough proposition. I put in the remaining 200 and the big blind checked. The flop came down Qs 2s Qd. I checked, the big blind checked and Isabella minimum bets out 400. There's now 400+400+400+500 (antes) and her bet of 400 in the pot. There's 2100 in the pot and I had definitely decided she's just making a bet with some bullshit hand. I am fairly certain she doesn't have a queen, I raised it to 1000 thinking that's all I have to invest to see if I can take down this pot. There's a lot out there and my small raise might make her worried about a queen. As soon as I raise it up the big blind says "TIME", and I'm thinking oh fuck you're not supposed to have a hand. He calls and Isabella folds. I'm thinking well, plan B I'm done with the hand I took my stab and maybe he has the queen. Turn is an offsuit rag, I check and he checks, river is a 10 and the only thing I'm praying is that he has a flushdraw with a card lower than mine so I'll take it down by highcard because I didn't plan on betting anymore. He checks behind me and shows Ks 10s for the flushdraw, but he had a king also and he hit a pair on the river. I don't hate my play here, just bad timing. I'm down to 2400 and the next hand I play is in the cutoff when I push with A-4 offsuit when it folds to me, I take that one down and I'm back at 3500. Then I can't pick up a hand seemingly, I get my first pair in forever, two deuces under the gun first to act. I decided to muck as I'd rather push two random rags in position than open push 2-2 under the gun. As it turns out, the big blind had two fives (and would've called) and he also flopped a five so I dodged a bullet. I forfeit my big blind and then I post my small blind and I'm back down to 2450 chips. Everybody folds around to me in the small blind and it's only me and the big blind, I have already decided without looking at my cards (I never look at my cards until it's my turn to act) that I am pushing this pot. It doesn't matter what two I have. I have enough chips that unless he's ace high, KQ-KJ-K10 or a pair he won't call me, this I'm fairly sure of. I look down at 7-2 offsuit, wow, thanks for that one. I push allin and the big blind asks for a count, I say it's 2650 total with my blind posted and he says "I call", this is not what I wanted to hear. He shows me A-7 which is probably the worst hand he could have as my seven is dead, flop came A-4-5 for a gutshot wheel draw, turn 7 and river 9 and I bust out somewhere in the range of 420th with top 270 paying. I don't really regret any play I made tonight, and while it sounds reckless to bust with 2-7 I knew that if I fold that one I have to push all-in sometime during the next eight hands before my blind or I'll be too low in chips to do anything. As I said earlier, I'd rather push a random garbage hand only having to go through one guy than push A-6 or 2-2 or something in early position. I'd also much rather push with 7-2 offsuit than have to call a raise with a mediocre hand, but that's just how I play. I still think if he wasn't ace high or a pair at that point I'd win the blinds and have another round to pick up a hand. Unfortunate timing.
I'm of course very disappointed to bust out not only so close to the money but when I felt like I played very well. I made a couple very aggressive borderline reckless moves but that's also just the style I play, if I get a hold of a lot of chips I can kick it up another notch and take down a lot of pots by playing flops and raising blinds so it was a calculated risk I took playing the 9-9 against what turned out to be Q-Q and so forth. I also have to be realistical and realize that to go through almost three thousand people I'm going to have to be very lucky at several, several points in the tournament. I'm a definite believer in aggressive play in these tournaments even though it's multi-day events. There are so many horrible players out there in the field that are just waiting to give away all their chips with one pair or that are willing to bust out with A-K after the flop even though they don't pair up. If you don't play aggressive and you don't get chips, you won't be able to play flops with these people and take full advantage of the fact that they like to give away chips.
If the event isn't sold out, I'm also playing tomorrows event, $1500 Pot Limit Hold'em. I love pot limit so I hope I can get a seat in that one, I forgot to buy in before I left the Rio. Take care everybody, wish me better luck tomorrow.
The event was the first official event, since Event #1 was for casino employees only and it was $1500 buy-in no limit hold'em. It was 2700 entrants in the event, 2200 registered and 500 alternates and all alternates made it in before the second level.
I was seated at a table with no recognizables whatsoever, and I knew that was a good thing. We started out with 1500 chips and 25/25 blinds and sixty minute levels. In the first level I raised it up to 75 with A-Q. I got one caller from the guy on my left and the flop came down Q-J-2 with two hearts. I bet 125 and he called. Turn was a low blank, I bet 250 and he called. River was a J and I checked, he thought a little and bet 400. There's plenty of hands I can still beat so I decided to call, he shows me A-J for the beautiful two out river. I was thinking immediately oh this is going to be a fun day, I'll be out in 15 minutes flat.
I get myself all the way down to 600 chips through blinds and I have A-8 offsuit in the small blind, the blinds are now 25/50 and there are three limpers and I toss in another 25 chip to complete the blind. Flop came A-10-3 all different suits. I check and everybody checks up to a player who I already thought was a weak player and he bets 150. It goes around to me and the only hand that I'm worried about is A-9. He'd raise A-K, A-Q, A-J and A-10 seems somewhat unlikely. I just thought he had a weak ace and A-9 seemed like the only thing that I was scared of. I decided to put it all in anyway as I might not get a better spot with my shortstack, it folds to him and he calls with A-6 and my hand holds up. Back to around 1400 chips. I'm at around 1750 when the next hand that goes to a showdown occurs. I raised two aces to 150, an asian guy makes a minimum raise to 300, I reraise it to 800 and he calls. Flop came down K-x-x
(x = irrelevant card under a ten) and I thought for a little and figured if I'm going to get action by anything I might as well put it in, I moved all-in and he calls with two queens and I busted him out. I'm at 3475 when the first break comes. This is also when Joe Cassidy gets moved two to my left.
The blinds were up to 50/100 and I play a hand against Joe real weak. He raises under the gun to 250, everybody folds to me, I'm in the small blind with A-K of hearts. I figured he's willing to gamble at this point as he got in the tournament really late as an alternate and only had 1500 chips so I didn't necessarily want a race. I thought I'd just smooth-call and play a flop. Flop came down all rags, I check, he bet 500 and he took it down. Nothing really happens after this, a guy tried to steal my blind and made it 450 on the button, I had two kings in the blind and raised to 1200 and he folded. I also double up the guy on my left when the cutoff raises to 250, I reraise to 700 with 9-9 and the blind pushes on my left. It's only a thousand more to me and I decided to call, he had A-Q and he won the race. A little later, I raise the big blind all-in from the button with A-10 and the small blind folds, the big blind calls all-in for 1100 with two deuces and it's my turn to win a flip. We play two more levels and it goes to the next break, in the second break I'm at 4400 with blinds about to be 100/200 with 25 ante.
I had already decided I'm kicking it up a notch when the antes kick in, every pot has 550 chips in it and that's a pretty large amount to add to my stack. I started raising a lot of pots and built my chips up. I also noticed two guys on my right liked to raise a lot of pots, and in three different instances I would flat-call them in position and take it away from them on the flop or the turn. Like in one hand the guy raises to 600, I call with Q-J. Flop came K-9-2 he bet another 800 and I just call. Turn he checks, I bet a thousand and he folds. A couple orbits later somebody raises my big blind and makes it 700 to go, I look down at A-7 and I put him allin for 2200 more. He folds and I get some more chips. I'm sitting right at 7700 when a guy in late position, two off the button raises to 1000. He only has another 1000 behind and I look down at A-8. I thought he was really weak when he made that kind of raise, I thought he'd either raise smaller with a real hand or push all-in with a medium pair of some sort. I thought he could have any small ace, KQ, KJ, KT, QJ, QT or JT. I definitely thought I was ahead even though it was a slight edge, I put him allin for the other thousand, fully knowing he has to call and he shows KQ. I win that pot and I'm at around 9000. I get to the high mark of 9950 about thirty minutes before the dinner break and the blinds are now 150/300 with 25 ante. I had no idea what the average was at this point, I thought I was slightly above average because our table was so inflated with chips taht even though I had near ten thousand I was fourth or fifth in chips at our table. That's when the crucial hand of the tournament for me played out. I had raised three times in one orbit, one time I raised with J-8 offsuit to 900 from middle position and a short-stack calls allin for 450 chips. I hated this for the plain reason that 450 chips doesn't matter to me but I had to show J-8 which would ruin my credibility. Prior to this I'd only shown down good hands. Two hands after J-8 that I lost, I raised to 900 with 9-9. It folds around to a reckless guy in the small blind who peeks at his cards and instantaneously pushes all-in. I ask for a count and it's 3650 more on top of my raise. I had a 9500 stack at this point and I had invested 900. I have 8600 if I fold and I will be in decent shape, I have 5000 if I call and lose. I'll be somewhere between 14 and 15 thousand if I call and win. A few orbits before this, I saw this guy make a really goofy play when he ended up winning a pot by calling a raise and a re-raise with A-9 of spades, flop a flushdraw and check-call all-in and hit a flush to double up so I had already thought that he was somewhat of a loose cannon. Then I started thinking that this is the fourth pot I raise in less than ten hands, and last one I showed was J-8 offsuit. He also pushed so very fast that I didn't think he was really strong, as I figured he would spend a little bit more time thinking about whether he could raise it less if he had a really big hand. The fact that he just moved in smelled a lot like A-K or A-Q to me. I also considered that he might push with any pair. I probably spent a good five minutes thinking about how to play this hand. In my mind, I had him as a 60% chance he's got two overcards, 30% he's got a smaller pair and 10% he'd wake up with a bigger pair than mine, but I thought that wasn't very likely. I put my chips in the middle and said call. My read was way off as he showed me two queens and I lost the pot. No sweat, I thought, I made a decision based on my read and I thought that if I had won that pot if he had two overcards I would've had such a big stack that I could just run over this table and pick up antes. I still wasn't out, but had some chips.
I get moved right after this hand to a table with only one known pro, Isabella Mercier. I only played a few hands before the dinner break and I left for the dinner break at 4450 chips. I come back after an hour and ten minutes, and the blinds are now 200/400 with 50 ante. I'm short but not desperately so, I'm just wishing I'll pick up a hand. I blind away down to about 3600 when Isabella who just had been involved in three or four pots in the last orbit limps in middle position, I have K-8 offsuit in the small blind. I thought about ditching it right here and saving the chips, but I also figured tossing in another 200 to win the 1500 out there might be a decent enough proposition. I put in the remaining 200 and the big blind checked. The flop came down Qs 2s Qd. I checked, the big blind checked and Isabella minimum bets out 400. There's now 400+400+400+500 (antes) and her bet of 400 in the pot. There's 2100 in the pot and I had definitely decided she's just making a bet with some bullshit hand. I am fairly certain she doesn't have a queen, I raised it to 1000 thinking that's all I have to invest to see if I can take down this pot. There's a lot out there and my small raise might make her worried about a queen. As soon as I raise it up the big blind says "TIME", and I'm thinking oh fuck you're not supposed to have a hand. He calls and Isabella folds. I'm thinking well, plan B I'm done with the hand I took my stab and maybe he has the queen. Turn is an offsuit rag, I check and he checks, river is a 10 and the only thing I'm praying is that he has a flushdraw with a card lower than mine so I'll take it down by highcard because I didn't plan on betting anymore. He checks behind me and shows Ks 10s for the flushdraw, but he had a king also and he hit a pair on the river. I don't hate my play here, just bad timing. I'm down to 2400 and the next hand I play is in the cutoff when I push with A-4 offsuit when it folds to me, I take that one down and I'm back at 3500. Then I can't pick up a hand seemingly, I get my first pair in forever, two deuces under the gun first to act. I decided to muck as I'd rather push two random rags in position than open push 2-2 under the gun. As it turns out, the big blind had two fives (and would've called) and he also flopped a five so I dodged a bullet. I forfeit my big blind and then I post my small blind and I'm back down to 2450 chips. Everybody folds around to me in the small blind and it's only me and the big blind, I have already decided without looking at my cards (I never look at my cards until it's my turn to act) that I am pushing this pot. It doesn't matter what two I have. I have enough chips that unless he's ace high, KQ-KJ-K10 or a pair he won't call me, this I'm fairly sure of. I look down at 7-2 offsuit, wow, thanks for that one. I push allin and the big blind asks for a count, I say it's 2650 total with my blind posted and he says "I call", this is not what I wanted to hear. He shows me A-7 which is probably the worst hand he could have as my seven is dead, flop came A-4-5 for a gutshot wheel draw, turn 7 and river 9 and I bust out somewhere in the range of 420th with top 270 paying. I don't really regret any play I made tonight, and while it sounds reckless to bust with 2-7 I knew that if I fold that one I have to push all-in sometime during the next eight hands before my blind or I'll be too low in chips to do anything. As I said earlier, I'd rather push a random garbage hand only having to go through one guy than push A-6 or 2-2 or something in early position. I'd also much rather push with 7-2 offsuit than have to call a raise with a mediocre hand, but that's just how I play. I still think if he wasn't ace high or a pair at that point I'd win the blinds and have another round to pick up a hand. Unfortunate timing.
I'm of course very disappointed to bust out not only so close to the money but when I felt like I played very well. I made a couple very aggressive borderline reckless moves but that's also just the style I play, if I get a hold of a lot of chips I can kick it up another notch and take down a lot of pots by playing flops and raising blinds so it was a calculated risk I took playing the 9-9 against what turned out to be Q-Q and so forth. I also have to be realistical and realize that to go through almost three thousand people I'm going to have to be very lucky at several, several points in the tournament. I'm a definite believer in aggressive play in these tournaments even though it's multi-day events. There are so many horrible players out there in the field that are just waiting to give away all their chips with one pair or that are willing to bust out with A-K after the flop even though they don't pair up. If you don't play aggressive and you don't get chips, you won't be able to play flops with these people and take full advantage of the fact that they like to give away chips.
If the event isn't sold out, I'm also playing tomorrows event, $1500 Pot Limit Hold'em. I love pot limit so I hope I can get a seat in that one, I forgot to buy in before I left the Rio. Take care everybody, wish me better luck tomorrow.
posted by Swede at 9:19 PM
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