DVO
07-21-2006, 04:00 PM
I enjoyed the other guy's post on his trip, so I'll give it a shot.
I played my first WSOP event last year, also a $1500 NL, and was card dead and out in 3 hours. I was also a wee bit intimidated by the whole thing, truth be told. So I had two goals for this year: Make the money, and lose the fear.
Some quick backround, I play a fair amount of PP multis, and live multis here in California when I have the time. Mostly $100 - $200 buy-ins. I've had a tough year in 2006, but still am up in the low 5 figure range since I got into this thing 3 years ago. I guess I could be categorized as a passionate hobbyist with a real job and supportive wife ( she's benefited from the winnings...)
My table was tight and solid this year, and not easy to push around. Only a couple of weak players came ( and left quickly) during the day. The infamous Strasser ( is it Jason?) started at my table, and Mark Seif joined us after about 30 minutes.
I immediately butcher a hand against Strasser.
I get 88 in LP and call Strasser's EP raise. He, of course, has built up a nice stack right away and is playing aggressively from all positions. The flop comes rags, he C-bets, I call. Turn is a brick, he checks. Good. I'm pretty sure I'm ahead, but want a cheap showdown so I check. He probably has 6 outs. River is a queen, and he bets 2/3 of the pot. I think there's enough of a chance he's trying to represent the Q that I call. He flips AQ. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Suddenly I am down to 1100 chips.
Soon thereafter, another aggressive player who has folded to pressure opens in LP and I raise him in the button with air. The BB wakes up and pushes all in. I have to fold with only 450 chips left. Argh. So much for my plans. 40 minutes into this thing it looks like I'm toast again.
Level 2 starts, blinds are 25/50 so with 450 I'm already in push/fold mode. I look down at KK on the button and pray some one raises in front of me. Of course it folds all the way around. I make what should be a suspiciously small 3xBB raise to 150. Seif in the BB hesitates, probably assumes I'm a donkey rather than trapping here, and calls. He pushes the J high flop,I call, he shows JK and I double up. Hey, at least I can always say I doubled up through Mark Seif.
I survive to the first break and then catch fire when we come back. I build my stack to ~5,000 with straightforward wins from AA, AK, and TT.
Then comes a key hand: Blinds 50/100. I have A2s on the button and I open raise to 300. BB, new to the table and also with 5000 or so, appears to be a thinking player, calls me. Flop comes 22J rainbow. I forget the action now, sorry to say, but I built the flop to 3000 by the turn, on a board of 22J7 with two spades. When a spade hit the river he stunned me by insta-pushing his last 2500 or so. Now my tourney is on the line. WTF. Did he really play a draw this way? I replayed the action and I didn't think he could have gone runner-runner flush here. So I called, and he mucked, and suddenly I was over 10,000 and easily the table CL. I then showed my live inexperience by being utterly confused when the dealer started gesturing for me to bring out my stacks for counting to settle up the hand ( I didn't shove them in, I just said 'call'.) I couldn't figure out what the heck he was doing. I'd showed my hand, what does he want from me? I think I was a bit flustered from the unexpected river action and taking the pot down. C'est la vie.
A series of steals and decent hands got me to 15,000 soon thereafter. Now I knew that the average stack would be 15,000 when we hit the money, so I was feeling good, even though we were only at ~75/150 blinds with hours to go. At some point around here Andy Bloch sat at my left with a smallish stack, chatted it up amiably with an older fellow on his left, and busted out.
Then comes another big hand:
Blinds 75/150 ( I think). UTG newcomer (7000) raises to 400 or so. I call in MP with 88. LP ( 5000) calls behind me. Pot ~1500. Flop comes K8x, two hearts. Beautiful. UTG bets out 1200. UTG's stack is perfect to try to get it all in now. I raise to 3000, LP folds, UTG pushes and I happily call, hoping to see AK to complete the dream scenario, but UTg flips Kh 9h. He hits the flush on the turn, I miss my redraw, and boom, I'm back to 10,000.
Good news followed, however. I got some more good hands, played aggressively, stole some pots, and as we approached the money, I had built my stack back up to 15,000 chips. Here I may have made a mistake.
I don't recall the blinds / antes but the pot was ~2000 pre flop, so it was probably 400/800 plus antes. Folded to MLP ( ~15,000), who had been making lots of PF raises, including overbet pushes of ~ 15X BB. He had shown 55 and 99 the two times he was called. ( He sucked out both times to overpairs, one time hitting the case card after a player announced he'd folded one of his outs). No one had re raised him when he had just raised the normal 3-4X bb PF. Anyway, it folds to him in LP and he raises to 2500. Folded to me on Button, I find AA. I weigh my options. A raise to 7000 or so, or push? Given his table image, I decided a push would look like a 'I'm tired of your $%^&, I'm coming over the top without much" and maybe get a call. I pushed, he tanked, then folded. I think I could have gotten more here. Still, not a bad result. I'm at ~20,000.
I cruised into the money ($2100) at 24,000 chips, and suddenly our very serious table became friendly and fun. Funny how that works.
The rising blinds and and an unsuccessful steal cut me down to 17,000 as I made it to the second payout: $2900. There were 155 or so left. With 30 minutes to go in the day, the blinds / antes were ~3000 per hand. However, my stack is still just a little below average and only two players cover me. Looks like I'm going to play tomorrow...
It folds to me on the button w/ AKs. Now this is ideal, because I've been raising the BB (covers me barely) in this situation for 5 hours and I knew he was sick of it. But this time I had a hand. I raised to ~6000. I prayed he'd go for it. I could feel it coming - NOW he would make his stand. Sure enough, after some hesitation, he came over the top for all my chips. His second word "in" had barely escaped his lips before I said "call" and flipped over my cards. He sheepishly flipped over As3s, muttered something about thinking I was on a steal, and I was soaring. Winning this pot would give me 40,000 and a put me in great position tomorrow.
The dealer put up 22J, two spades, and that is when I realized his A3 was suited. Some one said 'uh-oh', and before I had time to root against a spade, the damn dealer dealt another one on the turn, and I was drawing dead. OMG.
It was a brutal way to go out.
When I got home the next day, for some twisted, sick reason, I checked the standings for the end of day one and realized my 40,000 stack would have almost cracked the top 20, out of 2180 starters. That made it worse, somehow.
Still, I achieved my modest goals and the experience definitely helped my game. And it was a ton of fun. I hope it always feels special to play in a WSOP event. Some players complain about losing concentration after a few hours but I don't have that problem. I was on the edge of my seat and pumped for the whole 12 hours. I'm playing the ME next week and will be going full of confidence.
I played my first WSOP event last year, also a $1500 NL, and was card dead and out in 3 hours. I was also a wee bit intimidated by the whole thing, truth be told. So I had two goals for this year: Make the money, and lose the fear.
Some quick backround, I play a fair amount of PP multis, and live multis here in California when I have the time. Mostly $100 - $200 buy-ins. I've had a tough year in 2006, but still am up in the low 5 figure range since I got into this thing 3 years ago. I guess I could be categorized as a passionate hobbyist with a real job and supportive wife ( she's benefited from the winnings...)
My table was tight and solid this year, and not easy to push around. Only a couple of weak players came ( and left quickly) during the day. The infamous Strasser ( is it Jason?) started at my table, and Mark Seif joined us after about 30 minutes.
I immediately butcher a hand against Strasser.
I get 88 in LP and call Strasser's EP raise. He, of course, has built up a nice stack right away and is playing aggressively from all positions. The flop comes rags, he C-bets, I call. Turn is a brick, he checks. Good. I'm pretty sure I'm ahead, but want a cheap showdown so I check. He probably has 6 outs. River is a queen, and he bets 2/3 of the pot. I think there's enough of a chance he's trying to represent the Q that I call. He flips AQ. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Suddenly I am down to 1100 chips.
Soon thereafter, another aggressive player who has folded to pressure opens in LP and I raise him in the button with air. The BB wakes up and pushes all in. I have to fold with only 450 chips left. Argh. So much for my plans. 40 minutes into this thing it looks like I'm toast again.
Level 2 starts, blinds are 25/50 so with 450 I'm already in push/fold mode. I look down at KK on the button and pray some one raises in front of me. Of course it folds all the way around. I make what should be a suspiciously small 3xBB raise to 150. Seif in the BB hesitates, probably assumes I'm a donkey rather than trapping here, and calls. He pushes the J high flop,I call, he shows JK and I double up. Hey, at least I can always say I doubled up through Mark Seif.
I survive to the first break and then catch fire when we come back. I build my stack to ~5,000 with straightforward wins from AA, AK, and TT.
Then comes a key hand: Blinds 50/100. I have A2s on the button and I open raise to 300. BB, new to the table and also with 5000 or so, appears to be a thinking player, calls me. Flop comes 22J rainbow. I forget the action now, sorry to say, but I built the flop to 3000 by the turn, on a board of 22J7 with two spades. When a spade hit the river he stunned me by insta-pushing his last 2500 or so. Now my tourney is on the line. WTF. Did he really play a draw this way? I replayed the action and I didn't think he could have gone runner-runner flush here. So I called, and he mucked, and suddenly I was over 10,000 and easily the table CL. I then showed my live inexperience by being utterly confused when the dealer started gesturing for me to bring out my stacks for counting to settle up the hand ( I didn't shove them in, I just said 'call'.) I couldn't figure out what the heck he was doing. I'd showed my hand, what does he want from me? I think I was a bit flustered from the unexpected river action and taking the pot down. C'est la vie.
A series of steals and decent hands got me to 15,000 soon thereafter. Now I knew that the average stack would be 15,000 when we hit the money, so I was feeling good, even though we were only at ~75/150 blinds with hours to go. At some point around here Andy Bloch sat at my left with a smallish stack, chatted it up amiably with an older fellow on his left, and busted out.
Then comes another big hand:
Blinds 75/150 ( I think). UTG newcomer (7000) raises to 400 or so. I call in MP with 88. LP ( 5000) calls behind me. Pot ~1500. Flop comes K8x, two hearts. Beautiful. UTG bets out 1200. UTG's stack is perfect to try to get it all in now. I raise to 3000, LP folds, UTG pushes and I happily call, hoping to see AK to complete the dream scenario, but UTg flips Kh 9h. He hits the flush on the turn, I miss my redraw, and boom, I'm back to 10,000.
Good news followed, however. I got some more good hands, played aggressively, stole some pots, and as we approached the money, I had built my stack back up to 15,000 chips. Here I may have made a mistake.
I don't recall the blinds / antes but the pot was ~2000 pre flop, so it was probably 400/800 plus antes. Folded to MLP ( ~15,000), who had been making lots of PF raises, including overbet pushes of ~ 15X BB. He had shown 55 and 99 the two times he was called. ( He sucked out both times to overpairs, one time hitting the case card after a player announced he'd folded one of his outs). No one had re raised him when he had just raised the normal 3-4X bb PF. Anyway, it folds to him in LP and he raises to 2500. Folded to me on Button, I find AA. I weigh my options. A raise to 7000 or so, or push? Given his table image, I decided a push would look like a 'I'm tired of your $%^&, I'm coming over the top without much" and maybe get a call. I pushed, he tanked, then folded. I think I could have gotten more here. Still, not a bad result. I'm at ~20,000.
I cruised into the money ($2100) at 24,000 chips, and suddenly our very serious table became friendly and fun. Funny how that works.
The rising blinds and and an unsuccessful steal cut me down to 17,000 as I made it to the second payout: $2900. There were 155 or so left. With 30 minutes to go in the day, the blinds / antes were ~3000 per hand. However, my stack is still just a little below average and only two players cover me. Looks like I'm going to play tomorrow...
It folds to me on the button w/ AKs. Now this is ideal, because I've been raising the BB (covers me barely) in this situation for 5 hours and I knew he was sick of it. But this time I had a hand. I raised to ~6000. I prayed he'd go for it. I could feel it coming - NOW he would make his stand. Sure enough, after some hesitation, he came over the top for all my chips. His second word "in" had barely escaped his lips before I said "call" and flipped over my cards. He sheepishly flipped over As3s, muttered something about thinking I was on a steal, and I was soaring. Winning this pot would give me 40,000 and a put me in great position tomorrow.
The dealer put up 22J, two spades, and that is when I realized his A3 was suited. Some one said 'uh-oh', and before I had time to root against a spade, the damn dealer dealt another one on the turn, and I was drawing dead. OMG.
It was a brutal way to go out.
When I got home the next day, for some twisted, sick reason, I checked the standings for the end of day one and realized my 40,000 stack would have almost cracked the top 20, out of 2180 starters. That made it worse, somehow.
Still, I achieved my modest goals and the experience definitely helped my game. And it was a ton of fun. I hope it always feels special to play in a WSOP event. Some players complain about losing concentration after a few hours but I don't have that problem. I was on the edge of my seat and pumped for the whole 12 hours. I'm playing the ME next week and will be going full of confidence.