My Short WSOP Trip report (unfortunately lol)

[Halo7]

Crossposted from my poker blog at www.bluffworld.com . Hope some of you find it interesting.

August 8 , 2006 - WSOP Trip Report
Well, I just returned from almost 3 weeks in Vegas for the WSOP. What a blast! I played in 3 WSOP events while I was out there, Event #37 which was a $1500 buy-in, the $10,000 Main Event, and Event +41 which was also $1500 buy-in. I bought into the first $1500 and partially satellited into the 2nd $1500 event. I am kind of upset with my play in the WSOP events, especially the 1st and 2nd ones. In the $1500 events, you only start with T1500 in chips and the blinds are at 25 25 with 1 hour rounds. This seems slow enough, but by level 4 you are at 100-200 which means you are <10 BBs unless you have picked up something by then. I was pretty lucky in Event #37 which had 2800 entrants and was up to a high stack of T14,000 or so at my highest point. I sat at a table with T.J. Cloutier for most of the day and he was immediately to my right which wasn't too bad. He was a card rack that day, picking up Aces 6 times while I was at the table with him. I then had a steal go wrong with J8o when a short stack came over the top of me with A9o. It was a correct call pot odds wise, but I ended up losing about 3K chips on the hand. Another mistake was calling with QJ on a Q45A8 board (villian bet the flop 500, I raised to 1500, she called, turn was check check, and I couldn't find a fold on the river to her 2000 bet. Villian had 23o.) This hand got me down into a danger zone, and then the antes started kicking in, making it even worse. I ended up pushing on the button with A7o when I had about 8 BB's and the SB woke up with AK. I really should have been more patient since I went out about 380th and the top 270 got paid. I really wasn't playing to cash at that point though and was sort of playing my normal short stack game.

I am still kind of sick about going out of the $10,000 main event so early. I started off well, and cracked the guy beside me's Aces early on for a big pot. -- I have pocket 8's in the BB and the guy beside me raises the standard raise amount of 200. The button calls and I call too. The flop comes 456 rainbow. I decide to see where I am by check raising the flop. I check, the PFR bets 400, the button folds, and I check raise to 1200. The PFR calls, which in my mind eliminates most overcards except maybe AK. So I am putting him on 99-AA or AK at this point. A king comes on the turn and I know if I check, he will bet regardless of what he has, so I decide to bet and see what he does. I bet T2000 thinking that he might lay down 99-QQ with the strength I had shown, and that I am done with the hand if he calls. Well, he calls and the river is the beautiful 7. I bet another T2000 and he makes a crying call with his aces and I pick up a nice pot. This makes me one of the chip leaders at my table and it is pretty uneventful until this hand. I have T11,000 and call T100 with QTo in late position after 2 limpers. The button limps behind me so 6 of us see the flop of QT3 rainbow. It checks around to me and I bet T500. The button thinks for a second and raises it to 1500. The button is one of the few people at the table that has me covered at this point and I know is a skilled, aggressive player (stoxtrader from TITN if any of you know him). I definitely put KJ in his range at this point so I reraise to 3500. He thinks for a second again and then goes all in. At this point, I should have known I was beat and folded with 7K left, but like a donkey, I called to get shown pocket 3's for a set. The turn and river are no help and I bust during the 4th hour. One of the great things about starting with T10,000 chips is so you can get away from hands in situations like this. I am not sure if it was just me being used to the shallower stacked tournaments or what, but I couldn't find a fold when I should have been able to. Ah well, maybe next year.

The other $1500 Event I really never got anything started and went out after about 4 hours when I pushed on the button with 7 BBs with K7s and got called in the SB by AQo. The push was correct, and with the antes the pot odds were correct for the 60 40, but I didn't win the race. I did get to play with Monica who I played with in St Maarten (KrazyKanuck's significant other) and Chris Ferguson was at our table for a while before it broke.

Aside from the WSOP, I played a bunch of other tourneys and some 2-5 No Limit cash, which I had only played once before this trip. Luckily, I did great in the cash games which paid for more tournament buy ins. If I am remembering right I played in a $60 at Treasure Island (a waste of time due to a crappy structure), a $60 at the Flamingo (another waste of time), the $430 at the Mirage on one of the Sundays, the Noon $150 Caesars tournament one day (which has a nice structure and 40 minute blinds), and probably 4 of the WSOP Satellites at the Rio which were $125-525 buy in sit-N-gos. My favorite tournament was the Venetian 8 PM tournament which ends up being a $180 freezeout after you do the single addon and dealer bonus chip thing. You start with T4000 and there are 30 minute blinds with a very gradual increase. I played in this one 5 times and had some decent luck making it to the final table 2x. The first time there were 140 entrants and we ended up chopping it when it got down 4 handed. I ended up with $3400 on that one. The second time was the last night in Vegas and there were 80 entrants and I ended up chopping it when it got down to heads up and took home $2800.

Halo7

[stoxtrader]

you didnt tell me you posted at 2+2. tough hand sir. I would likely play an overpair or OESD the same way.

[BigPoppa]

[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] the Venetian MTTs [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

[Halo7]

[ QUOTE ]
you didnt tell me you posted at 2+2. tough hand sir. I would likely play an overpair or OESD the same way.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think you are just trying to make me feel better so you can take my money again next year! jk. You were the one player at the table that I could have laid it down for your rerereraise. Now the old man in the 10 seat? I woulda put all my chips in against whatever crap he was playing. How did you end up doing BTW? I hope you put my chips to good use.

Halo7