Two Plus Two Newer Archives - WSOP Trip Report part 8, An Afternoon with Phil Hellmuth, Events 19/21

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WSOP Trip Report part 8, An Afternoon with Phil Hellmuth, Events 19/21

WSOP Trip Report part 8, An Afternoon with Phil Hellmuth, Events 19 and 21
It’s the morning of event 19, $2500 NL holdem, and I need to meet Stevepa to get money as I am cash busto. Lately, whenever I call up Steve the conversation goes something like:
Bond: “Heeeey, steve, it’s Bond, what’s up?”
Steve: *Mumbled swearing* “Uh yea Bond, what’s up?”
Bond: “Not much, not much. So yeeeeeeeea, uhhhhhh, can I have some money? I’m kinda, kinda cash busto here.”
Steve: “God damn it you [censored] degen. *Siiiiiiiiiiiiiigh* Fine, meet me at the cage at 11:30 in the morning.”
Bond: “Um, also, could you ask Timex to turn on the backing doom switch for me? Thanks.”

So I meet Steve at 11:30 at the cage previous to the event and we walk down to the poker room. I am expecting the room to be madness as it often is for the smaller buy in NL tournaments but am pleasantly surprised when there is basically no line to register and I make it to my table quite early.

We start with $5000 chips at 25/50 blinds and hour long levels. For the first hour I must have looked like the biggest fish ever. I was CONSTANTLY getting hands good enough to limp/flat call raises. Often I’d hit just enough of the flop to call one bet then have to give up when some god awful turn card came. In the first 90 minutes I also managed to hit two sets but got really awful boards that I had to fast play (568 two clubs and 55, 678 two diamonds with 88) and the most I get out of it is about 1000 from a short stack who jams a flush draw vs the set of fives and ACTUALLY DOESN’T GET THERE. However, even having won that hand given the amount of other flops I was seeing but whiffing and giving up on, by the time I got moved tables I had roughly 4000 of my original 5000.

At 50/100 and my stack around 3800-4000 the only semi interesting hand of the day was played. I am in the BB holding KhJh.

Preflop: folds to MP1 (big stack), MP1 calls, folds to CO, CO calls, folds to SB, SB completes, hero checks.

Flop: K 8 8 rainbow
SB checks, hero checks, MP1 checks, CO checks.
Turn: 6 full rainbow
SB bets 300, hero calls, MP1 calls, CO folds.
River: 5
SB checks, hero bets 600 or 800 (I don’t remember but seems like good spot for thin value bet), MP1 calls, SB folds.

At this point I am super confident my KJ is good. MP1 looks like mid pair, KT/K9 but I guess KQ is possible. I flip up my hand and confidently say “Two pair with a J.” He flips up his Th 8h and drags the pot. It was by far the biggest reaction I had of any hand I’ve played thus far during WSOP, I leaned over the table staring at his hand and blurted out “What?”
After this hand I’m around roughly 2800-3000ish. I lose 600 when I open raise As6s on the HJ at 100/200 and the button makes it 2600. I’ve talked to a lot of people about this; online I pretty much raise-folding at 13-18 BB’s. Live however, we seem to all be in agreement that you should include this play in your arsenal since people fold way too much and basically never resteal.

I’ve got shaundeeb on the table behind me and I’m often leaning back and cracking jokes with him. My table is about as talkative and personable as a deaf mute so I waltz over to Shaun and tell him “if my table gets any friendlier someone’s gonna get shot.” I fold for a round and with 2400-2500 pick up AQ in EP. At 100/200 I decide to open jam. It folds to too a guy in MP who tanks pretty hardcore then finally calls. Now it folds to BB who lifts up his AQ for all to see and says “Nah, I just hate this hand.” MP flips up JJ and I’m pretty [censored] here. I call shaun over to watch my inevitable demise.

Flop: Q 4 2
“Your sick Bond!” Shaun blurts out, but I just stand there laughing, already knowing how this story ends.
Turn: J
MP leaps up “YES!!!!!!” I keep laughing.
River: Who cares?

I go find Adanthar over in the satellite area and I FINALLY WIN SOMETHING that night when he and I chop up a $525 satellite. Don’t get me wrong though, I’m still down in those things.

I get to bed very early at about 1am planning on getting 10 hours of sleep so I am super fresh for tomorrows $1500 shoot out event. I’ve taken a melatonin so my body feels drowsy and I quickly dose off. I have a horrible nightmare where I am drowning in a river and nobody will toss me a life saver, though one guy does throw one of those candy ones at me just to amuse himself. Okay, no I don’t, but it’d be a fitting nightmare either way.

I wake up good and early and have already bought in so I’m in zero rush. Unfortunately, when I get to the poker room I am informed they pushed the start time back to 12:30 so they can try to sell out the event. I grab one of the poker news WSOP update things and find that Phil Hellmuth has in fact won his 11th bracelet. Will we ever hear the end of it? Little did I know I was about to find out the hard way.

I show up to my table and scan the players around me. Using my awesome ‘deductive powers of stereotyping’ I figure I’ve probably gotten a fairly bad table draw as most of the guys are young and internetish looking, with only one middle aged rotund gentleman and middle aged woman for potential soft spots based on my broad generalizations. I am seated next to said rotund gentleman, who I find out is a pretty cool guy named Peter from Sweeden and we chat about how awesome the Venetian tournament is. For the first 20-30 minutes the one seat is empty and I figure perhaps we are one of the few tables that didn’t get a full ten guys. The table is playing very tight aggressive except for the woman on my left who is loose/stationish, and a young foreign guy two on my left who while fairly tight as zero handle on proper bet sizing. The table also includes Jennifer Harman’s husband Marco Traniello who, from what I’m told, doesn’t suck.

The first hand I play I raise 1 limper at 25/50 to 200 with TT and the woman calls behind me. The limper folds. She plays very straight forward/weak post flop.

Flop: A 5 4
I c bet half pot, as I expect her to read into my bet being weak roughly negative 10% of the time. She calls.
Turn: K
Check/check
River: 8
Check/check. She flips up ATss and takes the pot.

A few minutes after this hand our 10 seat is finally filled by Mr. lucky 11, Phil Hellmuth. He strolls up wearing his UB jersey with a giant [censored] smile on his face. After setting his stuff down in his seat he does something I’ve only ever seen done at a poker table once before. He walks around to each player on the table to shake their hand and wish them good luck. I have a fairly obviously suspicion this was done so he could hear every player congratulate him on his win. Or perhaps he’s just in a really great mood, and who could blame him? I ask him if he’s gotten any sleep, he say’s only a couple hours but he’s feeling good. It is my dirty little secret that I’m kind of a Phil Hellmuth fan. For one, the guy can obviously really REALLY play in live NL tournaments. Secondly, I pretty much find his antics amusing/hilarious. At this point it’s such a running joke that I can’t really see them harming anyone. He’s also a major salesman for the game and I think he very likely brings in way more players than he could ever drive out with his tantrums.

Phil would spend at least 1/3rd of the tournament waltzing around and chatting with other pro’s who would come over to congratulate him without paying much attention to the game. He also lets it be known that Doyle Brunson won $400,000 off his win, and that Daniel Negreanu had bet against him. He tells anyone that’ll listen to “never bet against me! Hahaha!!” When he did play he was constantly limping and paying off post flop, he seemed basically not interested in this tournament.

One of the best moments came when a fan came over to Phil with a hat and pen and asked him to sign. "I'm a huge fan man! Thanks a lot." Phil says sure and signs away. Then the fan asks "So how'd you do at your final table yesterday?" Way to prove what a huge fan you are sir, you have no idea if Phil accomplished his greatest poker feat or not and its plastered EVERYWHERE in the poker room with everyone constantly talking about it. Peter and I bust out laughing at his question, and Phil laconically answers "Yea, i won."

When the blinds moved up to 50/100 (and with Phil out of his seat) I have a stack of 2200 and am dealt 88 in EP. I raise to 300 and it folds to Marco Traniello who calls. All others fold.
Flop: Q 2 4
I bet 400, he calls. I decide at this point I’m basically shutting down unless I get an 8 to value bet, or an A/K to bluff.
Turn: K
I fire 700 and Marco insta jams. [censored], I fold leaving myself like 800ish. I’d like to hear people’s thoughts on my decision to bet this turn?

For a few rounds after that I push bot for a while and don’t get called. About 15 minutes from the break (and blind jump 100/200) we are 8 handed and I have 900 chips when the following develops:
I am in the BB holding TT. Folds to the button who raises to 400. SB folds and I shove. He obviously calls and flips up QdJd, off to the races.
Flop: Q Q 8
Turn: 9
River: 6
GG boys and girls. I shake Peter’s hand, as well as the guy who busted me and slink off from the table. If busting every event out of the money teaches you anything, its how to develop an excellent “walk of shame.” At this point I’d dare bet my walk is as inconspicuous yet subtly confident as anyone’s, though I often slip on my sunglasses to hide the stream of tears erupting from my eyes.

Anyway, that’s all for now. I came back to the room to write this up, after which I’ll head back to the poker room and search out Adanthar to grind satellites with and hopefully try to start turning things around.