Trip report $1K WSOP warm up side event (long)

[betgo]

I don’t know if this belongs here or Tournament Circuit. Mods can move it if they want. This is pretty long, as I went deep in the tournament.

Went to play in the WSOP warm up event at Harrahs AC. My intention was to play in the $1K side event on Tuesday May 15 and the $2K maint even on Wednesday. If I got knocked out early, I was going to play in the $500 4PM WSOP ME satellites.

There were 58 entries. I later find out from the staff that the $300 buyin side events on Friday and Saturday got over 300 entries. The lack of entries is attributed to lack of satellites, lack of publicity, lack up interest attracted by relatively small buyin main event, and Tuesday being worse than Thursday through Sunday. There are no women entries. I notice two strong players at my initial table, one of whom I later find out in Bodog Ari.

The early play didn’t seem as bad as usual. There were not a lot of hands with many limpers, and many of the hands were raised. The play didn’t seem as loose passive or weak tight as usual, but maybe that was partly because the money didn’t start out superdeep: you got 6K chips and the blinds started out at 25/50. I thought it might be a tougher tournament with the smaller field.

On one hand, 3rd position limps for 50, 5th position raises to 300, I call in 6th position with AKo, 3rd position limpreraises to 1200, 5th position calls, and I fold. 5th position’s set of tens busts 3rd position’s pocket aces, and I would have made broadway.

Early tournament goes pretty well. I keep increasing my stack and have more than average when we get to 3 tables. Bodog Ari is at my table again. I figure out he is Bodog Ari because everyone calls him Ari, he has Bodog gear on, and some kid with a sweatshirt saying “Bodog Ari’s Prodigy” sitting behind him. Bodog Ari raises a lot and plays very LAG.

There are other LAGs at the table. One of them comments that no one ever calls my raises, but his raises get called. I have noticed my raises and reraises often don’t get action live. I assume that this is partly from playing solidly; partly because my age, lack of shades and appearance and manner in general do not look LAG; partly because I pick good spots; and partly because no one wants to try to outplay me.

When it gets to two tables, I have 18K, which is about average. I make an awful play. I raise from middle position with ATo, 2500 with blinds 400/800/100. Old guy to my left flat call, which makes me unhappy. Then short stack pushes for 8600. I figure short stack may be making a squeeze play, and push, figuring flat caller can’t call. Old guy thinks for a while and calls, showing JJ. He appeared to be a decent player, but stereotypically supersolid. He had won a big pot a few hands earlier, showing down KK. Short stack then shows AQo, and I am in deep [censored]. Board is A7447, and I lose main pot, but win sidepot, and wind up with almost exactly the same stack I started with. The moral is that fairly late in a live tournament, you should assume everyone is a nit until you have indications otherwise.

As it approaches the bubble, loose player with decent stack keeps raising. Unfortunately, I have the worst position. He is directly to my left after old nitty player busted out. He later says he plays 5/10 NLHE and 40/80 FLHE at Borgata, and is nicknamed “Sky Captain”, based on the movie, and because he plays like a table captain, and his plays are a little out there or maniacal. He also says he won a WSOP seat on Stars and got cash.

Another strong player is two to my right. He is middle aged and looks like Jim McGreevy. He wares shades when people are staring him down. He mentions winning a $2500 tournament at Borgata for $250K. He mentions Lars Bonding refused to chop with him HU when Lars had a big lead. That makes him Joe Brooks. He seems like a TAG type. Anyway, he raises from the button, and I have A3s in the BB, so of course I push for about 5x the initial raise. He calls and shows TT. Then he makes a set on the flop, and all I have is a backdoor. And a 4% chance of winning. Since, this is not the end of the report, it is obvious I get runner runner for a flush.

With 11 players left, 9 places paying, blinds 600/1200/200, Sky Captain raises to 3500 from hijack. Next player reraises to 9K, with both players having about an additional 15K. Sky Captain calls. Sky Captain flops a flush draw with T8s, and his opponent flops a set of kings. Sky Captain pushes flop and is called. Sky Captain makes a backdoor straight on the river. Someone gets busted out on other table and we move to final table right on bubble. Guy with kings has 1500 of 350K chips in play and is berating Sky Captain.

At final table, rounds go from 45 minutes to an hour. It is advertised as a two day tournament, but we agree to play through that night. Guy with 1500 wins a pot and becomes just a short stack. It takes 30 minutes to clear the bubble. Most of the short stacks are playing tight, and short stacks keep winning allins. It is another 90 minutes of so to get to 8, and about 30 more minutes to get to 7.

We go to dinner with the 9-player final table. Sky Captain suggests we go as a group to the fancy Italian restaurant, even though it is more than our $20 vouchers. I say that is a real good idea, since we are all cashing pretty big. However, it doesn’t happen.

Sky Captain is playing very LAG; Joe Brooks is playing TAG but aggressive when he plays pots; another guy is playing a lot of pots, he likes to “play poker”, and he often calls in his BB, sometimes flat calls raises, and sometimes limps in, he also raises a lot; and I am playing kind of TAG with fairly short stack, not playing a lot of pots, but reraising allin often when I do. Everyone else seems to be playing very tight, in classic donk at final table fashion. The effect of it taking 2 ½ hours to bust 3 players is the tight donks bleed their chips and we get a pretty strong final 3.

Sky Captain is 3 to my right. He keeps raising and usually doesn’t get called or takes it with a cbet. Sky Captain has a good situation with the small ball player and Joe Brooks 2 and 3 to his right, so he can raise into tight players. He is building a good stack. I have a good restealing size, and am planning on pushing any kind of hand. I keep getting absolute junk. I get T6s and K7o, but can’t pull the trigger. I probably should have pushed those. One time Sky Captain opens in 3rd position and I have JTs. I consider a push or call, but fold.

Joe Brooks raises to 5K UTG+1 with 800/1600/200 blinds and Sky Captain calls. I push for 25K. Joe Brooks thinks for a while and makes motions like he is going to call to get a reaction. He folds and Sky Captain quickly folds. People ask if I have a big hand. I show the jacks. Someone remarks that is the way to play jacks, in contrast to a couple of people who got in trouble flat calling with them. Although some people expected a bigger hand, I wanted to show it wasn’t a straight squeeze play, since I intended to squeeze with a lot less later. Joe Brooks said he had KQo, which was consistent with the reasonably long tank and fold.

I am card dead and blinded back down to 25K. With blinds 800/1600/200, I get ATo with 5 players to act. I think about open pushing or limping, but raise to 5K. Joe Brooks pushes from the SB. I think for a while. He seemed fairly solid, and my image was solid, but I thought he might think I would fold with all the short stacks hanging in there. I folded, but maybe should have called.

I am down to 18K and am preparing to start pushbotting, particularly with the BB going up to 2K. Then the SB open raises to 8K. I look down at AA and push the other 10K. He shows JTs, one of the worse possible hands, but I double up.

While I am stacking my chips, Sky Captain raises to 5100 from CO, I look down at A7o in the SB and push for 38K. To my horror, Sky Captain turns over QQ. Flop comes 377, and I go from a short stack to chip leader in two hands.

I steal a few blinds, but mostly increase my stack with big pots. Small ball player raises and Sky Captain flat calls (the 3 players I mentioned and myself were most likely to be in pots, as the others were mostly rocks), I push with AA, take the pot, and show. Then I call short stack pushes with 99 and AQo, am way ahead, and win. When it gets to 4-handed, I have half the chips in play.

There are no cup holders. I spill some of my Heineken on the table. A short stack pushed for 15xBB into 6 players and I was a little annoyed at folding AJo on the button, which may have contributed to the spill. I order a 3rd Heineken. It is a lot of pressure at the final table and I play better when I drink. I never actually get drunk.

I lost one pot where I had about 160K with 350K in play 5-handed. I raise to 12K with a 4K BB UTG with ATo. Joe Brooks pushes for 60K more. This is the third time I got reraised with ATo. I think for a while and fold. Joe Brooks later remarks that I seemed nervous when he reraised me. I replied I had a close decision. I think I was kind of annoyed by the reraise and the situation.

With the blinds 2000/4000/500 4-handed, Sky Captain raises to 11K on the button. I have A6s in the BB and flat call with the intention of a stop and go. The flop comes A88 and we get allin. He has 82s. I turned out he had another 41K after the raise, with 25K in the pot. I somewhat undercounted his stack. Since he stole so many small pots, but lost big pots, he had all small chips. I had enough to get him to fold preflop. Atleast, he would have folded 82s, if not much else. Still the flat call was probably not a bad play there.

A short stack busts soon, and we get 3-handed with roughly equal stacks. There was no talk of a deal. The three of us had been the ones against a deal 6-handed. All of us probably thought we had a skill advantage. Sky Captain probably thought he could outplay us short handed with his aggressive play. Joe Brooks was the experienced pro. I think I am very strong short handed.

Joe Brooks won a big hand where Sky Captain raised and folded on the turn, probably bluffing. I lost some chips getting blinded down. At one point Joe Brooks had about 170K and Sky Captain and I both had about 90K. I decided to play tight and hope the maniac would bust out ensuring me 2nd place.

We got to here I had 80K and Sky Captain had 60K. Sky Captain pushed on the turn for 25K more. The board was QT85 with 2 2-flushes, so it was obvious neither of them was pure bluffing. Joe Brooks thought for a long time. I went to the bathroom. When I get back we are HU, and I never see their hands.

I start HU with a 4-1 chip disadvantage. I win a pot where I limp A4o. I call a bet on the flop. I make a straight on the river and Joe Brooks makes 2-pair with 52o and calls down. He saves a lot of chips by just check/calling. Brooks raises to 12K and I call with JTs and about 110K chips. The flop comes J98,r. We get allin on the flop. He shows J7o, and my hand holds up. Now I have about a 2-1 lead.

Then I lose a hand allin preflop. I don’t remember the cards when I lose. So I am down 2-1. Then I raise with 99, and he pushed with A7s. I win and am up 2-1 again. Brooks remarks that it will be over quickly. We had similar styles playing aggressively HU, and not trying to play small ball. Also, there were only 85xBB in play. I raise 95o, get called, make 2-pair on the river and get called. Brooks has 90K left. I get J9o in the SB, think about completing or raising and decide to push for 15xBB. He calls with A5o. I win the hand and the tournament, cashing for $21K.

I takes 50 minutes from when we get to 5-handed to when it is over. The play goes much faster with the rocks blinded out.

It is 1 AM when it is over. We played for 13 hours. The staff and railbirds shake my hand. When doing the paperwork, they ask if this is my first win, and I say no. By the time I go through the procedure to cash, put the money in the in room safe, and get my overnight bag from my car it is 2 AM. I decide I am not in shape to play the $2K at noon.

I go home. I make the mistake of taking my usual route. All traffic is diverted from the Garden State Parkway due to forest fires. The traffic back to AC is not moving on Route 9, so I continue on Route 9 north. It takes 2 hours to go 10 miles. The sky is dark and you can smell burning wood. There are ambulances moving through the stalled traffic.

[Infi3ld Fly]

nj congrats!!!

[Foucault]

Nice score, and very well-written trip report. It's pretty baller that you went to the bathroom while a pot that, although not involving you, probably involved, what, 10K+ equity for you?, went down. Respect.

[RichC.]

congrats and nice write up!!

[Mi_T_Sharp]

Nice score, Betgo!!!

I actually read the entire TR....good read. [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

[Exitonly]

nice report and nice win.

[Hoop Addict]

[ QUOTE ]
Nice score, Betgo!!!

I actually read the entire TR....good read. [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

Agreed.

More TR's, please!

[swede554]

nice read

[supernick24]

congrats and nice tr. lol at "sky captain"

[jonnyd]

nice man congrats. good TR