WSOP Trip Report part 14, The Old Man and the Wash, Event 38

[Bond18]

WSOP Trip Report part 14, The Old Man and the Wash, Event 38
If there’s one event I really don’t care to play during my stay in Vegas for the summer, it’s a $1500 buy in WSOP event. The fields are absurdly huge which a bitch for numerous reasons. The buy in is the lowest and least interesting of all the tournaments. The early structure more or less sucks (60 BB starting stack) so while your surrounded by absolutely god awful players you don’t really have a lot of room to maneuver with them like you could at say, the Venetian. Either way, I am under strict Timex orders to play all NL/PL holdem events at the WSOP and he’s got a point, the fields are about as much sick +EV as probably any tournament in the world.

Yet again the night previous to the event I have difficulty sleeping. I decided not to take a melatonin as I had only allowed myself about an 8 hour slot of time to sleep and was worried that if I stayed up a bit past that the melatonin may not have fully worn off. BIG mistake. I lied around in bed for a couple hours and read 2p2 until almost 6am, my brain totally incapable of switching to off mode for as far as I can tell, no real reason.

When I jolt awake at 11:40am I’m actually feeling not bad for such little sleep, plus I have the advantage that my table is almost practically right downstairs, as they have set a bunch of extra tables out in the hall in front of Buzios seafood restaurant because of the massive fields for these tournaments. My table appears to be all recreational players and a couple wanna-be pros, with more or less no legitimate threats.

At this point the first couple hours are kind of a blur to me and I don’t think anything interesting happened. I know I moved all in after a guy made a 4X raise and there were two or 3 callers holding AK and everyone folded at 50/100. By the first break I am sitting with 5.5k and get moved tables shortly afterwards.

At my new table I witness one of the most hilarious mind boggling hands of the WSOP so far. The action goes down as follows at 100/200 blinds.

Preflop: UTG limps, UTG+1 (wearing MJ cap, I shall call him MJ from now on) calls for 200, UTG+2 (Euro pro Chris Bigler) calls, I call with KQo, folds to SB who completes, BB checks.

Flop: 7h 5h 4d
SB checks, BB bets 650, UTG folds, MJ calls, Bigler calls, I fold.
Turn: 7c
BB checks, MJ checks, Bigler bets 1500, BB folds, MJ considers things then calls.
River: Td
MJ checks, Bigler moves all in for 1900. Now MJ tanks forever. He looks at his cards. Counts his chips (he has like, 1800 I think?) looks like he’s gonna fold, tanks some more, looks back at his chips. Then he puts his hands on his face and sits there for a while. Finally he seems to mentally talk himself into it and puts his chips in, apparently expecting the worse. Bigler says “your way good, I missed my flush draw” and flips up Jh 8h. MJ TURNS OVER POCKET FOURS FOR A FULL [censored] HOUSE. Biglers jaw hits the floor and politely asks “Um, what were you thinking about?” to which MJ replies “Oh man, I thought you had a bigger boat.” Note to self, bluff MJ.

For a while everything with this strategy goes great. MJ would limp, I’d raise, and he’d either fold or check fold the flop. At one point I get a chance to really stack him in a hand that goes as follows:

Blinds 100/200 25 ante, I have about 9k UTG+2 9 handed with 9d 8d. I raise to 550 as NOBODY is fighting my raises. Folds to MJ’s BB who calls.
Flop: Qd Jd Tc
MJ bets out 1000 with about 4-5k behind. I can’t believe he actually bet into me, he must have a HUGE hand. Conversely, I know he’s terrified of all in’s, so I’ll do the obvious thing. I raise to 3000. MJ quickly calls leaving himself about ~2k behind.
Turn: Kd
Meh, not a great card in terms of getting action, and MJ looks noticeably pissed about it. MJ checks, I put him in for his last 2k, and he deliberates and folds.

At my high point I have 12 or 13k. Then things start going wrong. I call a short stacks 4 or 5 BB shove in the BB with 65hh getting 2 to 1 and he has A4 and holds. I raise pre and the one smart player on the table happens to be on my left and starts shooting back. He begins 3 betting me pre or calling and CR’ing a lot of flops, so I have to slow down a bit. Then I play another interesting hand vs MJ:

MJ limps for 200 utg. He has about ~3k in his stack. It folds to me and I raise to 800 with AsQd. It folds back to MJ who calls, leaving 1900 behind.

Flop: 9c 3c 2c
MJ checks. Blegh, he might even just call off if he has a club in his hand, plus I’m pretty sure if I check behind and he checks turn again, I can push him off with an all in bet (which is about pot anyway.) I check the flop.
Turn: 7s
MJ checks. Okay, I think he’s missed his stupid hand. I’ll easily knock him out with an all in here. I put 2500 in the pot, he’s got 1900. MJ thinks for about 5-10 seconds, and puts his chips in the pot. Shiiiiat, top set? Flush? Limped AA? MJ flips up………..55 no club. WHAT THE [censored] I DON’T UNDERSTAND THESE PEOPLE!!! You debate folding a boat but call off your stack with 55? I’m not even saying his call was per say ‘bad’ but for HIM it sure as [censored] was.
River: Kd
I don’t understand live players. They nit it up and nit it up and nit it up and secretly pray to god each night that he’ll grant them the strength to fold QQ pre flop when somebody moves in pre for 10 BB’s cause they must have AA/KK then SUDDENLY decide to make hero calls. I just don’t get it.

My stack gets back down to around ~5000 after this little fiasco and a few other lost small pots when the following hand comes up:

I hold AA on the HJ. BB is a Euro player who, through the way he talks, blatantly lets people he finds himself quite the card shark, but in reality isn’t very good. Blinds 150/300 with 25 ante.

Preflop: Folds to hero, I raise to 800, folds to BB who makes it like 2600, and I decide since its live and all in is so sick scary and people actually [censored] fold getting 3 to 1 or better I might as well just call and let him put me in on the flop.
Flop: As Ad 2s
SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIAT, how the [censored] do I get value out of this? BB leads out 800. LOL, bet1/5thpotaments. This situation is so absolutely retarded, I mean, if I shove, he’ll actually fold basically everything. Even if I call its incredibly obvious what I have. I guess I should call and let him try to bluff me? I elect to call, leaving behind like 1400 or something.
Turn: 6s
Check/check.
River: Kh
BB moves all in, I call and say “I got quads.” BB instantly looks furious, repeating “I knew it, god damn it I knew it! I had KK! Such an awful river card! Such [censored]!” LOL, just, ya know, in general.

A little while after this hand we finally get moved into the main Amazon room. This sucks because I pretty much hate the insanely crowded, full of moron railbirds masturbating to the sight of Humberto Brenes, freezing cold, filthy felt, piece of [censored] in general Amazon room.

I am seated two on the right of an old guy wearing a tweed jacket, he looks about 65 or 70. I probably have like 10k at this point, and through various things going wrong a little at a time, that slips down to about 6k. We’ve got a good dealer (Jeffrey) on this table who’s efficient and polite, but the card dead old man (your always card dead when only QQ+ are playable people) decides to register complaint.

Old man: Dealer, you don’t wash the cards good enough! You have to give them the big wash!
Jeffrey: Sir, I’m just doing as the instruct me. I give them a small wash every hand as well as shuffles. It keeps the game moving better.
Old man: You don’t do it big enough! Make it a big wash!
I [censored] hate annoying nits who whine at dealers because they suck at poker/life. I decide to get involved.
Bond: Jeffrey I love the way you deal and wash the cards man! [I turn directly to old man with a big smile on my face] A quick dealer who gets the cards out fast keeps the game going well, and we get more hands in, pretty great no? [I turn back to dealer] Great work there Jeffrey!

The old man glares at me in annoyance, I nod at Jeffrey, he nods back, concealing a smile. For the next half hour the old man would seem agitated with me in general, especially if I raised.

Around this time, with blinds 200/400 50 ante and my stack at about 5000 from folding a lot, the following hand comes up:
I hold TT in the BB.

Preflop: Folds to MP2, MP2 calls 400. HJ raises to 1600. Folds to hero in BB who shoves. MP2 folds, HJ calls and turns over 66.
Board: No 6, boo yah! I double up to around 12k.

A round or two after this we move up to 300/600 with 75 ante putting me at about 20 BB’s. We get a new dealer, a very old and slow guy named Donald who seems more or less totally out of it. Hmm, agitated old man player + out of it old man dealer = impending disaster. A round later, the following situation develops:

Preflop: UTG limps in for 600, folds to agitated old man with 10k who waves his hands in the air a few times and mumbles all in. His cards are sitting in front of his stack. Donald sees the old man waving his hands and his cards in front of his stack and grabs the cards, placing them in the muck.
Old man: “HEY!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?!”
Donald: “What? What’s wrong?”
Bond: “Uh, he declared all in, you put his cards in the muck.”
Old man: “Give me my cards back!!!”

The cards are in the muck, touching other cards, but not completely mixed in. Donald pulls out what are very clearly the old mans two cards and we call over the floor. I am so curious how this one will turn out. The floor attempts to sort out the situation and what’s happened. The dealer is a bit to bewildered, and the old man to emotionally invested, so I try to break it down for him. He say’s to me and the guy on my right very directly “I need to know if you heard all in.”
”Absolutely, he definitely said it.” I respond. The floor man decides to have the old man whisper his exact two cards into his ear, and if they are the one’s that have been removed from the muck. The table agrees this is far. The old man whispers to him the exact cards, and since it is a dealer error his cards are restored to him. It folds around to UTG, who also folds.

TO BE CONTINUED (Going to dinner at Bellagio buffet with Wardekar/Dawgz)

[benza13]

WTF CLIFFHANGERS HYACHACHACHACHACHACHA

Good report so far as always Bonds

[NoahSD]

[ QUOTE ]

MJ limps for 200 utg. He has about ~3k in his stack. It folds to me and I raise to 800 with AsQd. It folds back to MJ who calls, leaving 1900 behind.

Flop: 9c 3c 2c
MJ checks. Blegh, he might even just call off if he has a club in his hand, plus I’m pretty sure if I check behind and he checks turn again, I can push him off with an all in bet (which is about pot anyway.) I check the flop.
Turn: 7s
MJ checks. Okay, I think he’s missed his stupid hand. I’ll easily knock him out with an all in here.

[/ QUOTE ]

This line gets no respect ever from average players. He's calling with all better hands. There are two good ways to play this hand here--shove flop or check flop and turn. I think shove flop is best.

[MJBuddy]

OMG CLIFFHANGER? SERIOUSLY?

You're such sick [censored] man!

[slystyle012]

love the cliffhanger! You should think about publishing a book...totally serious.

[kutuz_off]

[ QUOTE ]
WSOP Trip Report part 14, The Old Man and the Wash, Event 38

[/ QUOTE ]

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[ QUOTE ]
TO BE CONTINUED

[/ QUOTE ]

[img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]

[Russ M.]

OMG can't wait until the next episode! Did Bond finish ITM? Final table? Did the old man bust him? And will MJ return? Next week on...

[MJBuddy]

[ QUOTE ]
And will MJ return?



[/ QUOTE ]


Boo?

[Bond18]

A couple hands after this fiasco are table is set to break. As we’re getting up to move the old man taps me on the shoulder and says “Thanks a lot for speaking up!” Didn’t see that coming.

I settle in to my new table, with a roughly 12k stack at 300/600/75. A round in the following hand comes up, which I will post in HSMTT as people seem quite on the fence in regards to it:

I am HJ with Ad 4d. My stack is 12k, the SB in question has 6.6k.
Preflop: Folds to hero, hero raises to 1800, folds to SB, SB shoves, BB folds. I ask for a chip count and start doing the mental math. Looks like with BB/antes/money in pot I’m getting almost an exact 2 to 1 and make the call. The SB shows TT and rolls his eyes when he sees my hand. The TT holds and I’m knocked down to 5400. A round later we go to dinner break, and I leave utg with about 5000 in chips. I go to dinner with Grafyx, Sirio, MrTimCaum, Sirwatts, and TwistedEcho and we exchange stories back and forth of people making hilarious folds. At this point, selecting a ‘hilarious hand of the day’ has become difficult, as there are WAY too many candidates.

Arriving back from dinner I post my BB and look down at J8o. The action goes as follows:

Preflop: 2 folds, MP1 (old man) calls 600, folds to button, button calls, SB folds, hero checks (I don’t think I had enough to make them both fold.)
Flop: J 7 3 rainbow
Hero checks, MP1 checks, button bets 1500, hero shoves, MP1 folds, button folds.

So basically I double up without showdown on the first hand back. I really start to roll after this. I pick up some hands, shove into tight blinds, resteal on the old guy on my right with 75hh for 4X his raise successfully, everything is going my way. I get some quality hands and pick up the blinds, then reraise QQ over a raise and he folds. At around 20k with 600/1200 blinds a short stack shoves for ~8k and I rejam AJ and beat his JT. Now I’m sitting on almost 30k, and we’re approaching the bubble, [censored] is about to get hot.

Outside the WSOP ME, there is no tournament in the world that you can destroy and run over like a WSOP $1500 during the bubble. What comes next is really the fun part.

First I begin open raising a lot of hands and never get played back at. There’s only one other player on the table who doesn’t seem very concerned with cashing, and he’s 3 on my right. He also has a big stack. At 600/1200 with 100 ante the following hand developed vs him.
Hero: ~30k
Villain: ~55k
Hero holds 66 in MP1 9 handed.

Preflop: Folds to hero, Hero raises to 3200 (you can raise a lot smaller on the bubble), folds to BB, BB calls.
Flop: A A 5
BB checks. Hmm, this guy is pretty clever and aggro. I think if I bet here, he might CR me with a wide range and put me in a gross spot. I’m also pretty sure if I check back he may fire and we’ll keep the pot smaller. I check.
Turn: 8
BB bets 5000, I call fairly quickly.
River: 5
BB checks, I check and he mucks.

I also find some real hands during this period, and one player elects to keep calling me with mid pairs instead of 3 betting and folding when flops keep coming A high. Sometimes I have A and sometimes I don’t, but he never bothers to call and find out. I also show him an A sometimes, as having an honest image here is nice just for extra discouragement.

At one point after my beating him out of a number of pots, including just 3 betting him pre on a very wide range to make his life hard, the aforementioned player decides to start open limping instead of raising to save himself trouble. The following hand develops.
Hero: ~40k
Villain: ~30k
Blinds 600/1200 100 ante. Hero holds Q3o in BB.

Preflop: Folds to MP2, MP2 calls, HJ (old guy who is loose/bad) calls, folds to SB who completes, Hero checks.

Flop: 9 9 T rainbow
SB checks, hero checks, MP2 bets 3500, HJ folds, SB folds. Hmm to make this look legitimate I think I only need to raise him a little, like a 9 would. I think he’s going to be super overly cautious here, so it shouldn’t take much to find out if he’s TP weakish or huge. Hero raises to 8500. MP2 goes “Aaaaagh. Oh really?? *Sigh* alright I believe you” and folds showing me a T.

A few hands later the aforementioned only good player remaining raises to 3000 (his standard) UTG+2 and it folds to me in LP where I make it 9000 with K8o. He was opening a lot of pots and we were both well deep enough that I could fold to a 4 bet, which I really doubted he was capable of without a big hand even if he was a much better player than the rest.

The hand after they announce we’re at 271 with 270 paying it folds to the button who’s a young guy that has let the table know he really wants to cash. He raises to 800/1600 blinds to like 4k, the SB folds, and I move in, having about 3-4X his stack. (was going to with any 2, but actually found QJo.) He throws his hands up in the air in exasperation. “Damn it! Don’t you know I have a huge hand to be raising at this point?”
”Sure, but I don’t care.” Paging Tommy Lee Jones.
”Gaaaah, why would you do this!? AAAAGH! I have such a big hand. *Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh* Fine, I don’t care, I just want to cash, I fold.” The button then flips AK face up. Boo yah.

Before we enter the money I steal the blinds a couple more times, but eventually we finally end the party and break into the money. Its 12:30 and I have 62k in chips, at 9pm I had 5000.

Our table is immediately broken up after we enter the money and I am moved to table 1. The table is full of laughter and good spirits as everyone held on. I decide to get in on the act and start joking around and playing with people. One of the guy’s who has waited his way all the way to 1300 chips moves in when I’m in the BB for 1600. It folds to me and I flip up 92o vs his A4o. I flip up my 92 and start laughing, a guy across the table says jokingly “you sure seem invested in this pot huh?” I laugh at his joke, which gives me an idea.

Flop: T 8 3
Turn: 3
River 6
When the river hits I explode out of my chair “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!” The table bursts into laughter. “WHAT AN AWFUL BEAT!!” People from other tables are looking over trying to figure out what I could possibly be mad about and see the tiny 4000 or so in the middle. Everyone at my table seems to enjoy the humor and like me, which I feel is really great when wanting to get away with aggressive moves. One guy even says to me “I gotta tell ya, as a very heterosexual man I can safely say you are one very good lookin’ guy. I think it’s the suit.” Yep, I definitely have this table on my side, and suits pwn.

I sit back for a while and let the short stacks explode into each other while making chat with the table. I manage to stack a short stack who jams in the SB for about 7 BB’s and I call in the BB with A8o and hold vs his JTo. When the dust settles and we have about 45 minutes to go on the night I start raising a lot of hands, and with everyone so tired and being buddy, nobody plays back, not ONCE. When we finally bag up for the night I have my stack at $74,700, almost double the average.

The next morning I settle in to my table hoping this time I can really go on a run and make enough money that Timex will stop making threats on my family. The first few rounds I do nothing but fold minus raising KJ once and taking the blinds. One of the more LAG players on the table is two on my right, but he’s not a good pro LAG, more of a sloppy LAG, as he has admitted its his first time at the series and he’s a good 35 years old. Having sat back for so long I decide to find a spot to hit him when the following came up at 1k/2k with 300 antes:
Hero is button with Q3o, villain HJ. Both are about 70k deep.

Preflop: Folds to villain on HJ, villain makes it 5k. His standard raise at this point had been to 4500 and when I looked over (I was seat 1, him 9, sorta obstructed view) that’s what I thought it was again. Hero reraises to 14,500 (which is a bit small given what his raise actually was), blinds fold, HJ tanks for a bit, doesn’t seem sure of himself, then calls.

Flop: 9 X X (sorry, don’t remember)
HJ checks, hero bets 16000, HJ thinks it over, counts his chips, and folds.

After this I didn’t get to play any hands for a few rounds, after which the floor comes over and says we’ll be breaking. I look around the room and see a lot of tough tables, except one, table 66, with a line up of Imper1um, PBdrunks, Alex Jacob, and 2 other under 24 players I don’t recognize all in a row. The floor man throws me a seat card, Table 66, seat 4. Lame. I sit down and while all the young guys are on my left, I have gray haired 50ish guy on my right and the guy on his right is about 40 and looks like a trucker.

I fold for my first round on the table with the blinds now at 1500/3000 with 400 ante. While on the button, the following comes up between the middle aged guy on my right and me: CO has about 100k, hero ~80k. Hero holds AhKs on the button.

Preflop: Folds to CO, CO calls 3000 (I’ve only been at the table 1 round, I don’t know what this means.) Hero raises to 12k. Blinds fold. Now the strangest thing happens. The CO tanks hardcore. He starts smashing his chips into the felt while considering his options, staring at me really hard, smashing his chips into each other some more, and gripping them super tight in a really intense, stressed out way. He also begins audibly like, ‘grunting’ I guess is the best word. This goes on for like 2 or 3 minutes, him constantly smashing chips and grunting. Finally I pick up my water from the floor and calmly say “sir, you seem a bit agitated, care for some water?” He smashes his chips on to the table and announces “you seem very nervous!” He considers a few more seconds, then announces call. What. The. [censored].
Flop: 9h 6d 3h
CO thinks only very briefly then checks. I announce “twenty thousand” and slide two stacks of 500’s into the middle. AGAIN he enters into the routine of smashing chips, breathing loud, then grunting. After another 60-90 seconds of this he says “ALL IN!” and waves his chips into the middle. The dealer begins counting them out, I tell him not to bother, pull down my sunglasses, roll my eyes at the pbdrunks and fold.
“Fives! I had fives, pocket fives! It was pocket fives I had!” The old man is giddy. Bull [censored] [censored]. Nice job Mr. stupid [censored] slow player with KK/AA, raise those pre flop and you stack my ass.

Lucky for me this table was 2nd up in the break order and I was moved after folding another round or two with no cards. I get moved to the immediate right of Anna Wroblewski, who upon my sitting down introduces herself and begins her non stop talk to me and the table. That’s not to say I minded, she’s very nice and I like talkative players at the table, but that woman is there to play and have a good time. I tell her I saw her getting wasted with Scott (2p2 Mastr) at the Bellagio mid tournament, and ask her where her beer is today. She ups the ante with “oh yea? Who’s a drinker? Lets do shots!” I tell her she ought to keep it to beer for now, and go for shots if she busto’s. I look around the table at everyone’s stack as I always do, then looking over at Anna’s realize its just a huge stack of chips in a mess of piles.
“How much do you have there Anna? I’m used to having to having the numbers in front of me, but your stacks a mess.”
”I don’t know, I never count.”
”Aren’t you at all curious?”
”Hmm, your right, maybe I should.”
”Are we prop betting this?”
”Hell ya, k, I’ll guess I have $92,700.”
I glance at her stack, it’s gotta be way more.
“How much are we betting? $100?”
“Just $10.”
”Alrite your on.”
She counts out her stack and at 90k and stops, realizing she has at least 20k more to count. Ship the $10.

For most of my time at the table I didn’t have any hands to play (again) but did resteal all in with K7ss at about 14 BB’s when the SB raised it up 3X. He folded. My table is soon broken again and I am moved to the other side of the room which should be what will become the final table, so hopefully no more breaks and I can actually get a read.

At my new table it’s the same story, I am ridiculously card dead, there is always a raise in front of me, and the only times I’m in a good spot to resteal the original raiser will make some [censored] absurd 5X raise to 20k at 2k/4k and my 52k stack no longer has FE.

I fold down to around 44k and shove 62o on the button when its finally folded to me at 2k/4k 500 ante and the BB flashes me A8o and folds.

A round later I peer down in my SB and finally find a real hand, AQ. I begin making plans for how I’m going to profit on this hand when a weak/bad player opens UTG, followed by a shove in MP, followed by a call on the CO. I turn to the dealer and jokingly ask him “Why do you even tease me like this?” peel my cards for him to see, and muck.

A round after the hand I folded AQo we are up to 3k/6k with a 500 ante. It folds to me on the button with 42k and I jam 98o into a nitty BB. Unfortunately for me the SB wakes up with KK and rejams. The flop comes K high and ends my day, out 72nd for $8,722.

Although today’s tournament ended anticlimactically, things are certainly looking up. I’ve cashed two of my last two tournaments and run a hell of a lot better. Also, there’s not at tournament worth playing at the WSOP until Thursday (The $5000 6 max, BOO YAH!) so that means I get to play the incredibly awesome events at the gorgeous Bellagio hotel every day until then. Boo yah!

[radiihead]

great read yet again, congrats and gl