Some WSOP Thoughts

After getting away from it for a week and from poker in general, I thought it might be a good idea to give some final World Series of Poker thoughts.

I came into the WSOP with a specific bankroll planned that was essentially out of my yearly winnings. It was a number that I basically decided was going to keep me comfortable at all times. I wanted to play around 8 events including the main event, but if I did well early and made a big score, go for player of the year. While I know I'm not deeply experienced in every single game, I don't think the average player is either. With my online experience in every game, I felt pretty confident with this plan.

What began was a 1500 PL Hold 'em event where I immediately realized our chip stacks aren't going to allow much play, and with a couple of set up hands I was out. This kind of left me flustered as I didn't really know what to do. Should I keep taking small shots at these or play the bigger buy ins/rebuys? I decided against rebuys because I don't feel comfortable without 8k in the 1k rebuy to go. I don't even feel comfortable in the 100 rebuy half the time because I'm not ready to go off for 800 on any night in one tournament against a field of tough players.

After that, I played the 2000 No Limit Hold 'em and played considerably well. An AA vs 99 vs 88 all in hand crippled me when an 8 appeared on the flop.

Still after two events, I felt I played considerably well and did my best.

Then came event 3. It was a shorthanded event, 1500. 3000 chips in a shorthanded event can go awfully quick especially when you don't have the correct mentality. In retrospect, this was my worst tournament by far. I made several untimely plays. I wasn't patient when short stacked, and I just kind of failed at concentrating.

I came back later that night to try my hand at the 2500 Omaha Hi/Lo /Stud Hi/Lo mixed event. I got off to a great start. I cracked 10k fairly early from the 5k starting chip stack. The deck ran so super cold after level 4 that I had to kind of think through my hands again to see if I played bad or not. I think I played fine, but really ran extremely unlucky in Omaha Hi/Lo. This is a game where when dealt certain starting hands and hitting certain flops, you just won't be able to fold until the river if at any time. I had similar situations here and am happy with how I played.

So a quick poor start had my spirits dampened. If not for a 21k score online followed by a second place in the heads up championship on Pokerstars, I would have been phased just a little.

Another 2k event where I again played great poker up until a critical mistake before dinner. I got moved to a new table. Getting moved is sometimes a curse and sometimes a blessing as any player knows. Moving from my previous tables were both curses. I had a good understanding of several online players from playing against them online. I don't think they knew who I was giving me a significant edge. The other players weren't all that tough. I had a good image and everything was fine. When I got moved, I immediately caught in a bluff for some chips killing my image. Then I made probably the biggest mistake of my entire WSOP. I raised it up with 8 9 suited and was called behind. The BB moved all in for what was 4600 total I think after I put in a 1600 raise. I just called where I should be pushing all in all day to isolate. If I'm going to call, I might as well just take a shot. I think this was the only point where I made a critical mistake. If I shove here, I win the pot outright with all the dead money increasing my stack to an above average pretty close to the money. This situation can give me some good bubble opportunities. Either way, aside from that big mistake, I played well. In the end, it came down to me not winning a race 66 vs AQ.

The biggest disappointment of the whole series was the 3000 HORSE for me. I played both the 1500 and 3000. In both tournaments, I ran so incredibly bad that I left demoralized and shaking my head. In the 1500 event, it's tough to recover from running bad. The 3k HORSE though is an event that I should be able to find good spots. It's just frustrating when nothing go rights in games that I typically do very well at online.

Two more 1500 tournaments and losing races along with losing the 5 6 vs QQ after the 6 5 2 flop with the Q hitting the turn card were both crushing.

Then came my first cash ever. 53rd in the 2k event following a crushing beat of A10 vs A8. This tournament was a lot of fun in retrospect. It was really what it was all about. I felt great throughout. I made a couple of aggressive plays and thinks just went my way. I hit a couple of big river flushes on big draws that propelled me. Other than that though, I tended to get my money in very well. What hurt me in the end was the KQdd vs AA after the two diamond flop and I missed. I couldn't have felt worse about winning 11k. While this would guarantee a main event seat within my bankroll, I really felt that if that A10 holds against A8, I'm a lot richer right now.

The Main Event is an unbelievable experience. This was my second main event. I was not half the player I was 2 years ago when I played. I'll probably think the same thing in 2 more years about how I played now, but the gap is just so much farther. My ability to control the situations at my table this year was what I was most proud of. Even after getting short stacked early, I fought back with a nice 44 vs AK after a 4 10 K flop. The end of Day 1 saw me make an outstanding fold. Go read about it if you haven't yet.

Day 2 was a great experience. I had two tough internet players, an absolutely wild table, and I fought hard all day. I was up and down and up and down. I really and truly grinded through this day. I went into Day 3 feeling strong. I also had the possibility of being on TV with a 2 hour featured table stint. That's still to be determined even though I hope I don't end up on the cutting room floor.

Day 3 couldn't have gone worse. I couldn't get any hands. I couldn't steal a single pot preflop. I patiently waited and waited and eventually made a move that I think was fine with A9 suited, but was overcalled by a player with little experience with AQ off (even though I saw he finished pretty deep). I was really devastated after losing. All my goals and dreams for the entire year were shattered. I felt that I lacked a sense of validation and still do today. After all, my live cashes have no been impressive. I've made far more money online than I have in live tournaments. To be completely honest with my live play, I think it's been just a matter of not catching the right breaks at the right times. Every deep appearance usually ends by something out of my control. What a lot of people don't understand about poker is that many of the people they see on TV as the big time money winners and big time players wouldn't last over thousands of tournaments. Several of them don't have a dollar to their name. Some of them have tons of talent, but no money. Some of them have very little talent and lots of money. There are tons of ranges of skill levels and success stories. Where a player falls along the spectrum relies on both talent and luck. If you have the best luck though in your 10 dollar online tournaments, you won't be on TV, you won't be made of millions. If you have your best luck in one 10k event, you win a million and are instantly respected. When going to play with players that are considered big time, you can't go in thinking they are fabolous players. I've made this mistake before. You need to go in and evaluate exactly how they are playing and make your decisions accordingly. Sometimes it's just easier playing against players you don't recognize because your blueprint of their play is drawn in from scratch.

One final thought. To win any poker tournament where several good players are entered in the field, you need a few things. You need to get free chips. Free chips occur when the deck sets you up with them. You need to have good table draws. You need to have a thorough understanding of every stage of the tournament. You can only control one of those things. There are expanses of concepts in the thing you can control and learning more and always striving to learn is the best way to succeed in this game. The luck will even out in the end and I have no doubt that with the proper amount of tournaments played at the World Series or in live play, I'll have my victories.

Again, thanks for the support from everyone throughout. The next few months are big online months. An FTOPS and WCOOP are in August and September. These are just like live events like the WSOP with various games and such, but usually a better structure. I'll be playing lots of events in both. I think I'm due for a big victory in one of these. Let's hope it's soon.

Chicago to Cleveland

Sorry I haven't been updating lately, I'll be heading to Chicago and then Cleveland for the next month. I just got back from San Diego with my family and will be leaving shortly. I had a nice finish in the Full Tilt Nightly before I left for a little over $13k. I lost an all in for the win with AJ vs A8 on the 8 9 9 xx board.

Other than that, Carson Palmer will eat his words.

Out of Main Event

I was reraised non stop, card dead all day, and out of the main event around 950th place. Again, I'm about 300 short of the money and in some pain. I played as well as I can, but just wasn't allowed to win big pots or get chips easily. You have to get lucky to win this tournament. With the great structure, skill can only take you so far. If you miss every single flop, you can't win.

The bust out hand came when I was down to 30k with 15 big blinds. An aggressive player opened two from the button for 5200. I was on the button with A9 of hearts and reshoved. The big blind called 30k of his 70k stack with AQ off. The other guy folded. The board bricked out and I was eliminated. Would have been nice for a little bit of justice from the 2k event with a river 9 or something, but it wasn't meant to be. It is just one tournament and when you have to battle as the short stack for pretty much 18 out of 24 hours, the tourney can get boring. Today, I hung around and tried to find a good spot. I thought my play was completely standard and normal even though I was behind. The guy was opening plenty of pots and I wouldn't play it any other way. For AQ to overcall takes a real strong read. I wasn't given any respect from this player all day though and he will likely muppet off all his chips to the other good players at the table.

Thanks for all the support along the way. Who knows if I'll be back next year. No need to think about poker for a while. I'll probably be updating less in the next month or so as I'm going to be in San Diego, Chicago, Cleveland and playing very little poker. I might make a trip somewhere in there to another casino possibly Atlantic City or something.

Through Day 2

I thought I would give a quick update for everyone interested. I ended the day with 61,600 after starting with 37,525. I was quickly down to 22k after losing blinds, antes, and one small pot against an all in player. Then I rallied back to 50k. Then I crumbled down to 16k at one point. There were tons of hands none of which I really want to detail right now. The day was long and I fought hard the whole way. Entering the 500/1000 level with 17000 chips and fighting to eventually win a big pot to double up felt great. The last two hours were also part of the ESPN feature table even though I spent most of the time folding. Maybe I'll get some TV time or something.

One hand before I go to bed. The biggest pot of the tournament for me.

Early position limps for 1000. I complete the bet from the small blind and the big blind checks. I have K9 of diamonds. Flop comes Qh 8d 3s. Everyone checks. The turn is a Jd giving me a flush and gut shot straight draw. I decide to take a stab at it and bet 2500. The BB folds and the original limper raises to 5500. This raise size felt real strong to me, so I called hoping to hit one of my outs and get paid off. The river was a beautiful 2d. At this point, I had 27k left and I had seen this guy make one big call earlier in the day, so I thought that if he really was strong like I suspected when he made the raise that he would pay me off. He did with 9 10 of spades for a turned straight. I was on the lucky draw for a big pot. Nothing exciting happened after that except for a nice round of shots at the ESPN featured table. I doubt there will be much brought in for TV from our 2 hour session there.

Nostradamus no more

I didn't see that there was a dealer's tourney/media day today and every player gets the day off. Day 1A starts Tuesday. Updates will come after tomorrow.

I am Nostradamus, almost...

From an earlier blog

"The WSOP is basically over. One more event remains. Of course, it's the main event, 10,000 buy in NL Texas Hold 'em. My guess for the number of players is 6865."

The total number of players this year is 6844. That's a pretty good guess. Let's hope my playing ability tomorrow is as good as my guessing ability. Day 2A tomorrow. I hope I'm updating the blog at around 2:30am.

My great Day 1 fold

I totally forgot to put probably the most crucial hand of the day into my summary.

At the 200/400 level with 50 ante, I had around 46k. I raised under the gun with AK off to 1100. I received 5 calls. With the pot now at around 5600, the flop was Ac 6c 2s. I led out with 3600. I received a call from the player behind me. The next player to act made to 10,500. The other two players folded. At this point, I had a decision. This player had around the same stack as me with about 40k. I figured in my head that the odds he raised with a flush draw here are between 5-1%. He seemed to be one of the more intelligent players at the table. I basically just had to put him on a hand and then make a big decision. Just calling here was not an option because any flush draw can't get a free card here, especially considering the guy behind me was the most likely guy on a flush draw. Furthermore, the guy behind could also be slowplaying a set even though I ruled this out after some thought. Not many players are willing to let 3 players behind them in the pot with a set when an obvious flush draw is on board. I relayed this logic right over to the player who I believed was a good player and thought about how I would play the hand. Would I be raising here with a worse ace? Pretty much never. Would I be raising here with AK, probably not often. Would AK be a possibility for this guy? Judging by the amount of 3 betting he had done, I don't see a flat call with AK as being a big possibility. He has to have a set. He knows I've played pretty good so far. He knows I raised under the gun meaning I have a strong hand. For him to make that raise in this situation, I just have to be beat. I folded my hand. The other player called. The turn was a K of spades. The first player checked, the on the flop raiser moved all in for like 30k. The other guy called. The raiser showed 66 for a set and the other player had K 10 of clubs for the nut flush draw. I got up from the table and pumped my fist as I know that this type of hand could have easily knocked me out of the tournament.

Day 1 Complete

I just got back from Day 1 of the WSOP. I'm at 37,725 chips from the starting stack of 20,000. I was as low as 9,700 and as high as about 49,000. It was really a strange day as I felt aggression and pressure against me almost all day. I can't count on two hands even how many times I was three bet preflop. The caliber of play is different to say the least. While I sit with some players that are incredibly tough to play against at times, there are others that shouldn't be in a ten dollar rebuy tournament. All in all, I think I played pretty well today, and I had a strategy going in that I was going to play careful and solid. I doubled up when I was at 17,500 when I called a late position raiser from my UTG limp with 44. Flop came 4 10 K. I checked dark and he bet 2600. I just sensed a lot of strength so I went ahead and raised hoping to get it in. He put me in and showed AK and the turn card 3 sealed the deal. I was up to 35,000. Then, I just played a bunch of small pots until the last level. I raised to 1100 with 200/400 blinds 25 ante with AA in late position to be called by an old man out of the big blind. Flop was a scary Q 9s 10s. He checked and I checked behind. Turn was a 6. He bet 2,000 and I called. River was a 9. He bet 6,000 and I called. He showed A7 and I won. That was the only other real big pot I played in. I had a couple of smaller all ins when I had 20k. One I lost to AQ with 55 and the other I won with AK vs J7. I can't complain though as surviving day 1 is the first step towards winning the tournament. I'm happy with how I played and can't wait to start again on Monday Day 2A.